The Way it Was Meant to Be
by DMaster2013
Summary: How do they really feel? When a new deadly alliance reveals itself, will they stand together? Does Love really conquer all? Superman Wonder Woman love story.
1. Kal

_I am a fool. _

That is what I think to myself when I am alone. It is the thought from the darkest reaches of my mind that keeps finding its way back to the forefront of my thoughts.

It is in this train of thought that I find my one weakness. Kryptonite? No. That poisonous little bitter reminder of my destroyed homeworld? I have been brought to my knees and seen too much of my blood flow from fresh wounds brought upon by that little geological collection of elements, but the cure for that? Sunlight...the solar radiation that gives me my greatest gifts and returns me to that place in the sky that so many people have bestowed on me. Friends, allies, co-workers, strangers, they all place me on this pedestal. Man of Tomorrow? As far as I'm concerned 'Tomorrow' passed a long time ago.

I do not place myself there, up on high, above others. That is not the way I was raised and that is not who I am. Jor-El and Lara, Martha and Jonathan, they all loved me and they all knew that I was destined for greater things. "Such promise" they kept saying, "Such power". If they only knew...If they could only see me in this state that I am in now.

I am not afraid of dying. I did that once, it didn't take. I think back to my battle with that monster and all I can remember thinking in that last moment before I temporarily left this plane of existence is "Will I ever see her again?"

_Her. _Diana. Wonder Woman. My weakness.

My best friend. God, it feels so tacky when I say it like that, the farm boy in love with the mythical princess, but that is simply how it is. We do not control with whom we fall in love, but we can control how we go about it and how we attempt to express those feelings, and in that sense I have completely failed.

I wish I could remember when it was that I fell in love with her. God it has been so many years since our first meeting, the first time I laid eyes on her, the first time I heard her speak...Why do I remember her voice more than anything else? Her melodious voice filled my ears with such beautiful sounds, the ability to convey so much love for the world and the steel to fight for it in the same tone, it ironically has left me speechless next to her on many occasions. Amongst all the sounds of the world that I am constantly bombarded with, when she speaks it is as if the entire world is silent and all I can hear is her.

She is the warrior and she is the diplomat. How do those two go together you might ask? She once joked with me during a particularly trying encounter with several of our mutual villains that engaging in battle was simply "Diplomacy at the end of a sword".

Summing up Diana is impossible, I could have a thousand lifetimes and it still would not be enough. She is the strongest person I have ever known, blessed by the gods and goddesses of her homeland, and trained in the ancient ways of the Amazons to be one of the greatest warriors the world has seen or will ever see. It sounds cliché, but I consider myself blessed just to have lived in a time where she was alive. That is how I bring solace to my tortured thoughts, the knowledge that if nothing ever comes of my feelings for her, that at least I got to know her, to be there with her, to exist next to her.

Her physical beauty is unmatched, sculpted from clay by the hands of her mother and life breathed into her by the gods, she stands like a beautiful pillar at all times. Raven-coloured flowing hair that smells of orchids and fire, piercing sapphire eyes that somehow manage to convey both the love that I know she carries deep in her heart, and the fierceness that comes from her upbringing. What do you call it? The ability to look into her eyes and to know that she will do everything she can, including sacrifice herself, to protect the innocent and to punish those who would threaten or hurt others. It is that aura that emanates from her that is the source of her strength. There are other allies and enemies who are stronger than her physically, but none can match her resolve, it is her who will never give up, she who will never stop fighting. A living and unshakeable force of energy that just happens to be named Diana.

I would do anything for her. I spent one thousand years with her in Asgard just because she asked me to and never once gave into a moment of love with her. Why you ask? How could I tell you all of these things and have you still believe that I love Diana with all my being? It is for that reason that I love her that I never gave in, we were at war together, the two of us against the legions of the enemy-at-hand. I could not bear to love her only to lose her the next day. And so I held off, for one thousand years we fought together, and simply had to make due with glances and the occasional heart-to-heart..._I am a fool. _

I still remember that day that we returned back to our own time from Asgard. The battle won and for the first time in one thousand years I did not begin the day locked in combat with Diana by my side. I went back to work and to my life as if nothing had happened. That morning I took a moment for myself, I left Earth's atmosphere and landed in a crater on the dark side of the moon, fell to my knees and wept. I had been holding it in for too long. Sound surprising? Superman does not cry. I am not Superman. That is simply a moniker assigned to me by a opportunistic female newspaper reporter. Never in my life have I ever felt_ super. _I am a man, as fallible as the next, but I have to keep that hidden, I have to hold that inside, and let no one see it. This is my burden, this is my curse, this is what I must live with...to become the man that my parents (both of them) always wanted me to be. Nobody ever asked what I wanted, what I felt I deserved. I was not raised to be selfish, I know I am a good man, or at least that I try to do what is right. Right now I wish I could be selfish, that I could tell her that I want her, that I could tell her how long I have been waiting to feel her against me. _Pathetic. _

The buzzing in my ear, it's the Justice League comlink. Trouble is calling as always. The world never stops just because you are sad. "Superman here, what's the situation?" There's a pause and then even over the static I still can hear her breathing, I know it is her before she speaks. "Kal, we're in trouble and if you're not too busy, we could use a hand over here". Unseen to her I can't help but smile, I can hear from her voice that she is in the middle of an intense battle, and yet she still managed to take a jab at me. I am never too busy for her, I am her best friend, and at least she knows that much. "Never too busy to help. It's why I'm here" I respond, adding my qualifier at the end. "See you when you get here then" she responds briefly and then there's a click and she's gone...static fills my ear again. "See you when you get here?" I say to myself. I chuckle, out loud this time. If anybody else had heard the tone of our conversation, they would have thought we were going out for coffee, not dealing with a life-threatening situation. I immediately begin rising from the ground, my cape spreading out behind me, and in another moment the sound of the sonic boom fills my ears as I cut through the sky towards her.

I am Clark Kent, I am Kal-El of Krypton, I am the Man of Steel. I am all of these things...and I am none of them.

I am a man in love and I have never felt so lost.


	2. Diana

_I am not supposed to feel this way. _

That is what I think when I am alone. I am not supposed to have these feelings, I am a child born of the earth and blessed by the gods. It was by the divine grace of someone else that I even exist today. I was raised to be a warrior, to have no fear, to be the best, to lead my fellow Amazons against the gates of Tartarus.

It was not even supposed to be this way. It was by sheer accident that the aircraft crashed on Paradise Island, and it was by the consequence-free curiosity of a young headstrong teenager investigating the wreckage and its strange passenger that I even got to where I am now.

"Curiosity got the cat", I smiled to myself, thinking of Bruce and Selina's unique relationship. As far as I am concerned it is the epitome of what Man's world would call a 'dysfunctional situation'. However, I am one to talk. It was not supposed to be like this, I was not supposed to feel the way I do about him. I am a a warrior, I am a diplomat, a force directed by the divine, and yet I am still a woman, a woman in love with a man who does not love her back. It is the style of the films in the world of the patriarch, the damsel in distress worried if the high school jock likes her or not. It is pathetic, I am not eighteen and naive anymore. I am a woman and I am in love, I should be able to just tell him. __

Why is it so hard?

Kal-El. My Superman. My weakness. So many dreams and sleepless nights...

Did I ever tell you that I ruined it? Our only chance to be together. He would probably tell you he did, him and that damned Kansas charm, always so selfless, so noble. Why could he not be just another chauvinistic salivating barbarian who I could easily dismiss when he looked at my chest. Why did he have to always look into my eyes? Why could I not look away? His striking eyes made me believe he was a child of Poseidon the moment I saw him, but it was his gentleness and carefree spirit that made me know he could not have the blood of one of my gods...he was nothing like any of them. He managed to shame even the Olympian Pantheon, not for his handsome face or chiseled features, but because somehow the farm boy had more heart and kindness in him than all of the divine combined. _I have faith in him. _

He was always frustrated by his given title of Superman, in fact I do not believe I have ever heard him refer to himself by that mantle. The celluloid films shout out in my ears 'This looks like a job for Superman!' But in my heart all I see is Clark floating there and quietly whispering "It's why I'm here".

We had barely known eachother when he swooped in and kissed me for the first time. Myself, still the naive mythical princess, Him, the starstruck bashful child of the stars. We were in our youth, and he took a moment to just be a boy and kiss a girl that he liked. It lasted all of a few seconds, my eyes wide and pupils dilated both with shock and several emotions that I still do not understand to this day. Then he pulled away and like a child who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, placed his hand on the back of his neck and started stumbling over his words, about how "Maybe it was better if we stay friends". I remember silence and then tripping over my own words as I agreed. In all the moments I have heard him speak since then, I have never again heard his tone waver like it did in that instance. Why could I not understand then? We were both naive, but I should have tried to savor it. I have played it over in my head time and time again, and it still frustrates me. _He was a fool. I am a fool_.

Kal knows me to have love in my heart for the world, and to have hope like him for a better tomorrow...but that is not all I want. I am a woman. I am a woman in love with a man who only sees her as his best friend. We spent one thousand years in Asgard together, fighting side by side, and he still never took the moment to share with me. I want my moment, I want my chance. I am an Amazon and I will take what I want when it is given to me. There it is, the anger at this whole situation, all this power in my hands, the strength to bend steel like paper, to flatten a mountain with my foot, and all of it useless to me right now. All of the gifts given to me and no practical use for them. I am not even sure if Kal sees me as a woman anymore. I am the best friend, the teammate, the warrior at his flank, and he at mine. _Why is it so hard?_

I am Diana. Wonder Woman. The Amazon Princess...and I am in love.

_I am not supposed to feel this way and I have never felt so lost. _


	3. Bruce

_They are both fools. _

That is what I tell myself when I observe the two of them. It is my nature, the methodical and calculating way that I go about. You can call it paranoia if you want, I simply call it _prudent planning._

Being prepared is the age-old motto of the Scouts. They call Clark the Boy Scout, but when has that oaf ever been prepared? When has ever thought about it before he threw himself headlong into something, jumping in front of a bullet or picking up a space shuttle from the sky? It is his nature to put himself in harm's way and to face danger without moving. Some people say he does it because he can, that he does it because he's invulnerable...but I have watched him take on foes armed to the teeth with kryptonite weapons without hesitating, and I have seen him go the distance with a monster who beat him to death, but not before he managed to save Metropolis one more time.

_This woman is going to be trouble._ That is what I first thought when I saw Diana. How does one go about comprehending an Amazon Princess, born by the will of the Ancient Greek Olympian Pantheon, and raised by a society of man-hating female zealots? She is as strong as Clark is, and once again, not afraid to throw herself in front of harm to protect others. I remember that when I first met her, naive of the world's ways, and watched her dumbfounded as she encountered Flash and his attempts to constantly court her. I smile to myself and recall the first time where Diana had learned just enough to understand a rather crude comment by Wally. Neither Wally, Clark nor myself could move fast enough to stop her from slapping him right through a nearby door.

Although that memory brings a rare smile to my face, it is also the reason why I have always been troubled by her. Despite all she has learned, she is still a warrior at heart and will fight with the sword when necessary. I think back to the situation with Maxwell Lord and I once again try to convince myself that she had a choice, that she did not have to kill him. So many variables, so many strategies, so many calculations, so much hindsight, all leading to...nothing. She always had that ability on most of the men she encountered. Who knew that the Goddess of Truth could be so confusing?

At one point I may have had feelings for her, but that was a long time ago, before Selina decided it was time that the Bat commit to one woman. I find it interesting that the master strategist who has outwitted nearly everyone who he has faced was brought to his knees by a burglar in a cat costume. "That's love for you" I say to no one in particular. In the safety of the cave, my cowl is down as my fingers dance across the keyboard, updating the extensive profiles of the two individuals that are up on the multi-screen in front of me. Superman and Wonder Woman. Clark Kent and Diana Prince.

Earlier I chastised both of them for rushing headlong into constant battle without a strategy, for acting brashly and without a moment to plan. And yet, here we are, the two strongest powerhouses of the Justice League, acting like nine-year olds with crushes. They think I cannot see, they think no one can see. Hell, they can't even see it in eachother. If you asked either of them, they would claim to know the other like no one else, and yet if you followed that up with any kind of romantic suggestion, they would sputter and fall slightly off-balance.

I always enjoyed the humour of watching a man who could take a grenade to the face without blinking, stumble backwards the moment you asked him if he liked a specific girl or not. It reminds me that despite his alien heritage, Clark is at his heart all to human, and every bit the naive Kansas farmboy, even now after everything we have been seen and been through together.

Now Diana on the other hand...I rub my jaw, still remembering the one moment I decided to push it a bit too far, to see if I could make the Amazon admit to her feelings...

"Come on Princess, who do you think you are fooling" I commented, watching her follow Clark out of the room with her eyes, not blinking or losing focus on the light breeze of his cape as he exited the Justice League conference room. "What was that Bruce?" She turned to face me as if I had asked her about the weather outside, eventhough we were in space, she even missed that I had called her 'Princess'. She hated when anyone called her that, even Clark, so when I said it, I was expecting a hook to the jaw, but it never came. "You love him don't you?" I moved closer to her, narrowing my eyes under the cowl, watching her micro-expressions. Despite being a diplomat and a battle-hardened warrior who had trained her whole life to control her expressions, I saw the look flash through her eyes, the look of longing, the look that had launched a thousand ships, the look...of love. It was the look Selina gave me when I asked her to marry me last month. It lasted all of a second before her expression blanked and you may as well have switched on her diplomatic political correctness as she, in a completely neutral tone, replied "Clark is a good ally in battle and a good friend", and then she began to walk away.

I had sighed like a journalist who was not getting a politician to be forthcoming, so I decided to risk it by pushing for a more aggressive reaction. "Yeah, you're right, how could you ever be with a wimpy, indecisive, and poor reporter from Kansas? Not enough jewels for the pretty Princess?" I gruffly responded, deliberately dropping my synthesized Batman-voice for a moment, and falling into the playboy facade of Bruce Wayne, making sure every word held that upper-crust distain that I wanted it to. I wanted to be an ass, and I wanted to be unpredictable. If I had added just a bit more decency to my response it wouldn't have worked...but it did. I watched her freeze, and I watched her back tense up, and the next thing I knew, I was on my back, my jaw slightly dislocated, and a very angry Amazon above me. But she didn't react any more than that. The moment she hit me, she knew I had goaded her. She leaned down to me, pulled back my cowl slowly, and looked me in the eye, and spoke with ice in her voice, "I know why you did that Bruce, I could have hit you much harder or I could have allowed you to just get away with that, but I decided to hit you this time, because next time you stick your nose into mine or Kal's personal life like that, I will remove the jaw", and with that she grabbed my jaw and painfully put it back into place, and then walked away.

I actually find myself laughing out loud as I remember that, the first and only moment that I have ever truly been cold-clocked by anyone. Not even I thought she would react like that, once again proving the point of how unpredictable their situation is.

But it has been years and I am getting tired of this. I could not give a damn if they ever got together if they managed to keep it in, but at a micro-level it is beginning to affect their work and the mission. The mission is the most important thing, and I cannot have two of the League's most powerful members losing focus. I know in my head that if they were both pointing the same way and were completely focused, then they would be nearly impossible to stop and we could actually get more done, and then maybe they would just leave me alone in Gotham and let me do my god-damned job. I never was big on the team angle, but that is the way it is. Two of my best friends, actual friends of mine are in trouble and they do not even know it.

This time the mission does not require the Batman to vanquish a stronger foe, or to outwit a master strategist, or overpower a deadly toxin. This time the mission is Superman and Wonder Woman. It is time for the Dark Knight to risk his jaw again.

_This is going to be harder than anytime I had to stop the Joker. _

**_A/N: Now that I have their perspectives, I will be leaving the first-person narrative and moving into third-person to get into the broader story. For those of you wondering what happens next, it's time to leave our heroes' minds and enter into their world and get this story underway. Evil awakens, alliances made, world at stake, you know the drill, let's get moving! _**


	4. Just Another Day

_"God damn it, when is he going to get here?"_

Diana couldn't help but smile to herself as her train of thought drifted to Kal's imminent arrival, but her thoughts were rudely interrupted by the incoming fist of Mongul. She immediately side-stepped to the right and proceeded to throw him over her shoulder, where he landed, wedged in a trash dumpster twenty feet away.

Diana barely had a chance to catch her breath before a dark blur moved infront of her and grabbed her roughly from behind, holding her tightly, where despite her best struggles she couldn't move. She noticed the crackle of lightning emanating from the offender's hands and the golden gauntlets on their wrists.

_"Well I know this isn't Zeus, and there's only one other person who controls lightning that way" _She thought to herself, then proceeding to tense her neck muscles before brutally headbutting the man in the nose. She heard him curse and loosen his hold for just a second, which was more than enough for the Amazon warrior as she roughly pulled away, managing to put a few feet between her and him.

"Black Adam. What the hell are you doing allied with Mongul?" Diana watched as the twisted smile began to form on his face, and the lightning began to dance around the symbol on his chest as he prepared for combat.

"Who said he was in charge?" Adam said, as he and Diana began to move in a circle around eachother, daring the other to make the first move.

"You may have wisdom from the gods, but I sure as Tartarus know it's not you, you couldn't be bothered to lead anything...wasn't that why you were such a bad king in Egypt in the first place?" Diana knew she was deliberately goading him, but she was counting on him getting angry in the first place.

She watched the malice split his features as his eyes began to glow blue, but this time he remained silent.

"What's wrong? Wizard got your tongue?" She gripped her golden lasso in one hand, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

Adam simply stood there, now allowing the Amazon to get closer, moving in for the warrior strike, but then...

"Shazam!" Adam yelled to the heavens as he immediately blurred closer to Diana before speeding away just as quickly, cruelly laughing, knowing exactly what was about to happen. "Good luck Amazon!"

_"Oh Gods no!"_ Diana thought as in that split-second before the thunder came, she had to make a decision. The last time Adam had used the Wizard's lightning to attack her and her Justice League comrades, he had nearly devastated an entire city. Diana looked to her left and then to her right, taking in the horrified on-lookers and their children nearby. To the left was an elementary school, and to the right was a busy shopping centre. She knew she had time to get clear before the lightning hit, but if she moved then the entire area would be levelled and many people would die...but if she took the lightning with her bracelets, just maybe it would contain the blast enough.

_But would she survive? _That didn't matter, she was a warrior and she had a job to do.

_"I chose this life, I chose to do this, I gladly accept that risk and all that comes with it" _

"Well Hephaestus, let's see how good a smith you really are".

Diana immediately brought her braces up just in time for the clouds to darken and the massive bolt began to make its way down, angrily splitting the sky and sending molten heat in every direction. It happened in less than a second, but Diana still saw every movement the bolt made, streaking from left to right.

Over the roar of the lightning, Diana heard a deafening crack as if someone had split the sky in half. A sound that she had heard many times before. It was as if the horizon was on fire, as if every breath of air in the sky suddenly combusted at once...a sonic-boom a thousand times over. She watched as a crimson blur streaked past her, grabbing a surprised Black Adam from behind, before tossing him just as fast over her head.

Adam barely had a chance to scream before the enchanted lightning hit him square in the chest, causing an blinding burst of light to flare out in all directions.

As the haze cleared, Diana saw an old and frail Egyptian man roll to the side as Teth-Adam was returned to his human-self.

"That was always the problem with that particular type of kamikaze attack, always taking that risk that they'd get caught in that blast" Diana turned to her left to see Kal walking towards her, moving with such ease that it was as if he should have his hands in his pocket, as though he were strolling through the park.

"Cutting it kind of close there Kal? Any later and I would have made you explain to Hephaestus why he had to buff the charring out of my braces" She stood, regarding the man before her, walking towards her, oblivious to all around him.

_"God I hate that he does that"_ She thought to herself. It always seemed to Diana that half the time in battle, Kal may as well have been playing baseball in Smallville with the way he carried himself and the near-zen level calm he always seemed to maintain, even in the face of great adversity.

She had asked him about it many times, how he could maintain such peace in battle, and he would respond with something along the lines of his emotionless Kryptonian heritage, but Diana knew it was more than that. She had witnessed the holograms of his parents and the way their voices broke when they expressed their love for their infant son, and she had seen the anger from Zod and Faora when they had clashed with them in the past. Kryptonians sure as hell weren't emotionless, that was just a cop-out as far as she was concerned. Kal was her best friend but he could really give her the cold shoulder every now and then.

_"He still remains a partial mystery" _She thought as she watched that handsome lopsided grin appear on his face in response to her chastising.

"What? You can't blame a guy for being fascinated watching a woman work? Besides you handled that pretty well over there by yourself" Clark commented in response, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to where Mongul remained, groaning and half conscious with the multi-ton dumpster on the lower half of his body.

"What? I didn't drop it on him" She retorted, returning his smile.

"No, but you threw him halfway through it" He indicated that Mongul seemed to be wedged inside the steel box.

"I don't like him" She shrugged in response.

Kal's response was a hearty laugh, deep from within his chest, a noise that was music to Diana's ears. _"How can just hearing him laugh make me lose focus?"_

"Do you_ like_ any of the villains we have to deal with?" He arched his brow, teasing Diana with the obvious.

Clark had to admit to himself that of the thousands of things he loved about this woman in front of him, her abrupt forwardness and honesty was one of his favourite. It was part of what made her so special, that she never danced around the issue, just approached it head on, which from a man like Clark (who was used to diving in front of explosives), was exactly how he liked it.

"I don't know Kal, if Adam wasn't so evil, he would actually be a very attractive male, don't you think?" Diana arched her brow in response to Kal, having become an expert in the facial expressions of the Man of Steel. She watched with delight as his brows fell, furrowing above his eyes. She knew that she'd caught him off-guard with that one, but it only occurred for about a split-second before the playful Kansas farmboy returned.

"Well if ancient evil mystics are your type, I could always see if Faust is available for a blind-date?" He cockily responded, letting a bit of arrogant-masculinity enter into his voice, and deliberately referencing Diana's least favourite sorcerer.

It was Clark's turn to smile as he watched Diana's hand twitch over the piece of concrete she was leaning on, reducing it to gravel.

"I'll take that as a no?" He folded his arms over the shield on his chest, almost as if he was content now that he'd gotten under her skin, even for a moment.

"Funny Kal, real joker you are" She grumbled, turning away from him and surveying the scene to make sure everyone was okay.

Clark felt slightly bad that he had referenced one of Diana's most hated enemies and was about to apologize, but an angry groan interrupted him from behind.

"Kryptonian, letting a woman do your work for you?" Mongul had regained consciousness and was busy trying to extract himself from the side of the dumpster.

"You're in no position to criticize her Mongul. What are you doing working with Black Adam? You're not much of a team-player" Clark moved closer to the large yellow-skinned alien, who regarded him with the utmost disdain.

"After what you did on Warworld, I'll take any opportunity and I'll fight alongside anyone who is willing to come to Earth and take you on. You've made many enemies Kal-El, many more than you have friends I think" He said, finally landing with a loud thud on the ground.

"You see, that's where you're wrong Mongul. I have more friends and allies across the universe than you could possibly imagine, and do you want to know why? This little skirmish here with you and Adam over there, this will most likely be the most important day of your life for the rest of this year, but for Diana, myself, and the rest of the League, it's Tuesday" Clark responded coldly, picking Mongul up by the neckline of his purple armour, and glancing skyward at Green Lantern John Stewart who was floating down towards them.

"Take this garbage back to Oa John" He said, tossing Mongul casually up the air like he was an oversized yellow baseball, where he was immediately encased in a cage made of hardened green light.

"With pleasure Superman" John nodded down at him, before disappearing through the atmosphere and rocketing towards the Lantern homeworld to deposit Mongul back in the intergalactic jail where he belonged.

Diana watched as Clark continued to stare at the sky, no doubt still watching John as he began his journey through the stars. She watched his eyes as they seemed to dart back and forth, yet still fixated on an unknown point.

"Well since it's Tuesday, what do you have planned for the rest of the week Kal?" Diana watched as he immediately tore his eyes from the sky and fixated them on hers, immediately causing her heartbeat to slightly flutter.

_"Damn, I hope he didn't hear that" _She thought to herself, knowing that he had a habit of listening to her heart, always making sure that it was steady and she was there in the moment where he was, like her own personal guardian angel. But if Kal had heard anything, he didn't show it, as he shrugged and replied to her query.

"Besides typing up a story about this little encounter for the Planet, not much. I may take a quick side-trip to Smallville to visit Ma, she has been asking me to visit alot lately" He said, causing Diana's face to scrunch up into that of slight confusion.

"I didn't know Martha had called you lately, usually you tell me when she does" Diana said, causing Clark to feel slightly warmer at his core at her genuine concern at the prospect that he hadn't told her something as trivial as that he heard from his mother recently.

_"She really does pay attention to everything"_ He thought to himself, but quickly dismissed the hopeful thought, knowing that Diana was a woman of details and would know that fact about any one of her friends.

"Well she doesn't exactly call me. She knows when I tend to hover in the Earth's atmosphere listening to the sounds of the world, and she calls to me from home, knowing that I can hear her voice no matter what" Clark replied, causing Diana to eye him with even more care.

_"Not only does he listen to see if the entire world needs his help, but he still can hear his mother's voice amid all the chaotic sounds". _In her eyes Kal seemed to always come back to his humble beginnings, one of the most powerful forces in all the known worlds, and he's was still a deeply caring son.

Diana was immediately brought back to one of the many times she had been over at the Kent's farm and watched as his mother chastised him for not pulling out the chair for Diana before he sat down as she "raised him better than that", or smacking him on the side of the head when he tried to eat before saying grace at the table. She had watched as he hung his head in shame and mumbled his apologies before reciting a brief prayer in thanks. In Clark's mind at that point, he could never have been more embarrassed as his mother had corrected her son in front of their guest, especially one as important to him as Diana, but as far as Diana was concerned, she could not have been more delighted to once again get a glimpse of why he was so different than any other man she had come across. He always held himself up to an impossible standard when engaged in battle, and yet could still be such a caring man when the uniform came off.

So many women had swooned and fallen in love with Superman in his signature red-and-blue, like that Lois Lane character who had briefly been enamoured with him so many years ago when he had first appeared on the scene in Metropolis.

Diana fell in love with him when he had been sitting at that carved wooden table, dressed in a faded jean shirt, and tan khaki pants caked in mud from farm-work all day. She was a woman who loved a man. The fact that he was_ Super_ and she was a _Wonder _were secondary.

For a moment they both did not speak, simply content with being there in eachother's companies, despite being in the middle of a dusty urban street.

The moment was long enough for Teth Adam to take a chance, open his eyes and see that their backs were turned._ "Perfect" _He thought to himself as he opened his mouth and began to speak.

"Shaz..." Adam had barely gotten the first syllable out before a black-armoured fist roughly struck him in the side of the head, knocking him out cold, causing both Clark and Diana to spin around in time to watch Adam fall to his knees and roll over onto his side, a large shadowed figure looming over him.

"If you two weren't so busy comparing schedules, you could tell that we're not done here" Batman angrily responded, sealing Adam's mouth with a special adhesive and slapping a pair of handcuffs on his arms.

Ignoring the jab from his friend, Clark turned and flashed him a full-pearly-white smile, "Where would the fun be without a little danger Bruce?"

"Funny Kent, I'll remember that the next time Luthor uses a kryptonite death-ray on you and I've got a moment before I save your ass again" He grumbled, before leaning the unconscious Adam against the wall.

"J'onn, transport Black Adam to one of our enchanted cells on the Watchtower. That should hold him until Captain Marvel and the Wizard decide how long and how far to banish him this time" He said, touching the comlink in his cowl.

"Of course Batman" The Martian's voice crackled over the speakers in his earpiece so all of them heard him. They all watched as Adam disappeared in a flash of white and blue light.

"There, now we're done, you can go back to Gotham now" Diana said, folding her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes at Bruce. _"I'm barely here 2 minutes and already I feel like a third-wheel around these two"_ He thought to himself, taking into account the body language of both of them, in particular the clipped tone of Diana's voice.

_"Hmmm it seems the Princess is ready to make her move"_ He looked over at her, noting the way she was looking at Clark._ "She was going to ask him out". _That would have been perfect for Bruce's problem, but he looked at the expression on Clark's face and noted that he still seemed to be oblivious to Diana's true intentions. _"This isn't their time"_.

"There is nothing I would like better than to get back to my city and leave the rest of the world to the Amazon Princess and the Man of Steel, but Kent and I have some business to discuss" He said, noting immediately that Diana didn't seem to happy with that plan, so he decided to cut her off and use the second part of his plan before she could offer an alternative.

"Your sister Donna asked you to visit her on Themyscira, she did mention it with some urgency" He said, causing her to stop immediately.

Bruce watched with some satisfaction as her expression changed, knowing that despite her personal feelings for Clark, Diana was still a warrior and her homeland and family were very high up on her priorities list.

"Did she say what it was about?"

"Only that you should get there as soon as you can" He replied, suppressing the satisfaction that things were going smoothly so far. The fact that Donna had conveyed that message to the Watchtower only hours ago had been a blessing to his machinations.

"It's okay Diana, we can talk later, remember that I'm always around" Clark said softly, causing Bruce to roll his eyes behind his cowl. _"Jesus this man has it bad" _He thought to himself, noting that he may as well be crawling around at Diana's feet, but then noting Diana's smile at his words, _"She's just as bad as he is". _

"Alright, I'll talk to you _both _when I get back" She said, deliberately adding the coldness in her voice when she said 'both', indicating that she may have some choice words for Bruce when she got back, and with that she took to the sky.

Bruce shrugged and turned to watch, where Clark's eyes were still on the sky, the man still gazing as Diana headed off east towards the hidden island of the Amazons.

"Kent we seriously need to talk" He said, causing Clark to barely notice, besides making an inaudible grunt, but continuing to watch Diana's figure on the horizon.

"You would think by now that you would have memorized what she looks like, I don't know why you have to continue staring at her like that" He deliberately poked at him, causing Clark to spin his head abruptly towards him and respond quietly "We're just friends Bruce, that's all it's always ever been". Bruce sighed heavily, having heard this answer many times before.

_"This is going to be fun" _Bruce thought, thinking ahead to his quite unique series of events he had planned for Clark that night. _"He's going to admit to his feelings tonight or I'm hanging up the cowl"_.

_"I wonder if he'll be mad when he finds out how I'm going to use that kryptonite he gave me"._

"Meet me at the manor in two hours, wear something nice, we're having dinner and Alfred will be upset if either one of us are late". And with that, Batman shot his grapnel gun skywards, catching onto the Batplane, and with that he was out of sight.

"Just another day at work" Clark shrugged to himself as he himself took to the sky and began making his way to Metropolis where he could get in a quick change of clothes before heading to dinner with Bruce in Gotham.

**A/N: And there we are! Let me know how you like the shift as the rest of this story will be in the third-person as this chapter. Thanks to everyone for the reviews so far!**

**What does the Batman have planned for Clark? What does Donna need Diana for? Why was Black Adam working with Mongul? Find out next time! Enjoy!**


	5. Superman vs Batman

_I can't believe I am actually going through with this..._

Bruce had spent months planning this encounter out, getting everything ready to an absolute 'T'. He was Batman, he was supposed to be methodical and emotionless when it came to accomplishing the mission, but this time even he was worried that he was about to push it too far.

Although he hated admitting it, he loved Clark like a brother and Diana like a sister, they were the closest family he had, next to Dick and Tim. He never thought he'd ever find himself in this situation. Both of them could end up hating him after he followed through with what he had planned, especially Diana. He had fought with Clark on several occasions, whether it be mind-control, Poison Ivy's pheromones, or just general disagreements. He knew what it was like to take a punch from the Man of Steel. If it hadn't been for his composite armour that Clark himself had helped him design, and a healthy dose of kryptonite dust, then he wouldn't be standing here today. He couldn't believe that he was actually ready to deliberately pick a fight with Clark, when Clark hadn't done anything to merit the pain that he was about to make him endure.

_"That's not true, he has had this coming for years". _

Bruce was not surprised to hear the gravel in his voice as he could hear Batman coming to the surface. He shook his head and steeled his mind, he would need it for what was about to happen. He was about to betray his brother and put him through hell...all to prove a point.

The Batman was not a matchmaker, and Clark was about to find out what happened when he tried his hand at it. There was nothing cute about what was to come. It was going to be dark, it was going to be brutal, and if Selina had been right when he told her his plan,_ it was going to be beautiful._

A brutal deconstruction of Clark's consciousness and physical being until only the man was left. Bruce was going to mutilate and burn the 'Super'.

Bruce would be lying to himself if he didn't take some perverse joy in what was about to happen. He was about to pound the Man of Steel up to his curled forelock in the kryptonite-laced dirt.

People understood that the Batman had a moral code not to kill or be overly brutal at unnecessary times, to be in complete control at all times, but as several incarcerated felons could now attest to, sometimes it would have been better if he had actually killed them, so they didn't have to live with what he left them with, nothing but their guilt to keep them company in the dark holes they would spend the rest of their lives in.

He was the Night and Clark was the Day, the moon and the sun next to eachother, and he was about to give Clark a lesson in what happened when the darkness enveloped him and there was no pretty sunshine to reload on.

"Master Bruce, the power generators are plugged in. You may plunge the entire eastern United States into darkness but I assume it will be worth it after you beat your best friend to a pulp for no good reason".

Bruce couldn't help but feel the tug of a smile on his lips as he watched Alfred enter in the cave where he was working on his custom armour that he had built specifically for this encounter.

"I doubt Mr. Kent is going to be pleased when he finds out that the last time you were in his Fortress, you stole the designs for a Kryptonian battle suit, just so you could last a few more moments against him".

Bruce was about to respond, but he couldn't help but step back and admire what he'd managed to accomplish in just a few short months. The Batman doesn't gloat or bask, but he sure as hell can enjoy a good piece of work when he sees it.

Nearly twenty feet tall, jet black, and made of a custom alloy, built from Kryptonian and Olympian technology. It was powered by a red-solar generator and the lead-lined gauntlets concealed gloved armour made of pure kryptonite. Most people thought that after they destroyed the Annihilator suit that had been crafted by Hephaestus that it had been returned to the smith-god to be destroyed, but that wasn't completely true.

Hephaestus had only been too happy to provide Bruce with pieces of the enchanted battle suit that were now affixed to the mechanized suit that stood before him.

"I didn't even have to offer him anything" Bruce chuckled to himself, remembering that Hephaestus had liked the idea that Batman planned to use the armour as a countermeasure against both Clark and Diana should either of them go rogue. Bruce hated magic because it lacked the logic he was used to, and dealing with the Greek Pantheon was even more so taxing, but it was worth it in the end. The ends always had to justify the means, otherwise he was no better than any of the criminals that he dealt with on a nightly basis.

"No one except Zeus can be all powerful" The god had said, before swiftly handing over the parts that he had asked for.

"The meal is ready Master Bruce, and if my old ears do not deceive me, not a moment too soon" Alfred said, just as the sound of the manor's doorbell rang throughout the cave walls.

"Here we go". Batman stood up, his doubts gone, Bruce Wayne at the back of his mind. He was ready to do what he had to.

Clark stood out front of Bruce's home, shuffling slightly from side-to-side. He always felt uneasy when he visited the manor, fact was he just didn't understand why Bruce needed so much enclosed space. Now a twelve hectare open field, that was something Clark could agree with.

"He's only at this home maybe three hours at a time, and that's just to sleep, why the hell does he need a house this big" Clark thought out loud, but quickly steeled his curiosity, just in time for Alfred to answer the door.

Clark smiled the moment he saw the smiling, almost paternal, gaze from the kindly old man. He knew that despite Alfred's old age, he was still an extremely sharp man, being both ex-MI6 British intelligence and now the caretaker for the world's greatest detective. As far as Clark was concerned, this man was a hero in his own right.

"Welcome back Mr. Kent, Master Bruce is waiting for you in the dining room. I hope you don't mind, but the meal is already on the table. In your line of work, I'm sure you understand the need to have food prepared as quickly as possible in case you decide to prowl on rooftops sooner than expected"

Clark couldn't help but laugh at that, noting that Alfred seemed to reference Bruce's nocturnal activities as the Batman as nothing more than an unusual hobby.

"Thank you Alfred, it is good to be back" Clark said, moving past the older gentleman and in towards the dining room. Clark was not comfortable with being lead down the hallway by Alfred or making the man stand on ceremony for him, his humble beginnings not allowing him to.

Clark thought he detected some uneasiness in Alfred's manner, but dismissed the feeling quickly, chalking it up to his daily paternal concern for Bruce.

"It's not easy being Batman's father" Clark thought as he moved into the dining room where Bruce stood from the table and immediately walked over to him, dressed in what was most likely a suit that cost more than his parents' farm in Smallville.

"Kent good to see you and I'm glad you could come to dinner tonight, we have things to discuss" He said, allowing a smile to plaster on his face, before warmly shaking his hand, causing Clark to arch his eyebrow at him.

"The Batman is smiling, this must be really serious if you're starting that way" Clark watched with some satisfaction as the smile immediately fell off and Batman crept to the surface.

"Don't read too much into it, I don't get many opportunities to smile you know" He said, before moving back to the table and indicating a chair to his immediate left on the long oak dining table. Bruce was glad that his smile had distracted Clark momentarily, he knew his friend trusted him, but didn't trust that Clark's battle-hardened nature wouldn't cause him the impulse to quickly x-ray the room, at which point he was sure that he would notice that his suit was lined with lead, concealing both the kryptonite in his left-jacket pocket and the fact that he was already wearing the inner-layer of his armour.

"Oh don't worry I won't" Clark said before sitting down immediately.

Alfred almost right away brought the food out and Clark was delighted to see that Bruce had decided to go old-school for his guest, providing massive home-made double-bacon cheeseburgers, fresh cut fries, and thick blended chocolate milkshakes.

Bruce shook his head, watching Clark almost with super-speed begin to dig into his plate. "I know it's not the Smallville maltshop, but I like to think that Alfred puts together the food very well" He commented, before beginning to eat from his own spread.

_"Good, he was so distracted by the type of food, that his senses didn't even detect it". _Bruce was about to give Clark one more chance to fess up to his feelings for Diana. Despite his best-laid plans and months of preparation, Clark was his brother and he owed it to him to try again, even it was for the thousandth time.

"Yes, this tastes wonderful, but now I know you want something, you wouldn't have put Alfred through this if you didn't" Clark said, glancing up from his burger.

Clark watched as Bruce leaned forward, and Clark couldn't help but frown as his super-hearing picked up the extreme unease in Bruce's heartbeat and the change in his posture._ "This isn't going to be good"._

"Clark, despite our differences, you are still practically my brother, and I know you feel the same way" Bruce paused and watched as Clark smiled slightly and nodded in affirmation. "And yet you still feel it necessary to lie to both myself and Diana repeatedly".

Clark was surprised by the abrupt shift in Bruce's tone, but quickly responded, "I don't know what you're talking about, I've been nothing but honest with both of you".

"We both know that's a lie Kent, we also both know that you're lying to yourself as well and you've been putting yourself through hell for more years than I can even fathom" Bruce said, before leaning back and sighing out loud.

"I'm going to give you one more chance to be honest with me and yourself so you can be honest with that poor woman that you've been putting through hell for over a thousand years. God I'm Bruce Wayne, I've broken more hearts than I care to imagine before I settled down with Selina, and I've done so in some pretty brutal ways and even I think you're an ass".

Clark was left speechless, his eyes widening behind the frames of his glasses. "What the hell are you on about now Bruce?"

"You're going to admit to me and yourself that you're in love with the Amazon" Bruce said quietly, without looking up, as if he had just asked Clark how the local baseball team was faring.

Clark was jarred by that one, but this wasn't the first time that Bruce had accused him of harbouring feelings for Diana. Clark had gone a thousand years in Asgard without touching Diana or even coming close to telling her that he had any inkling of personal feelings towards her beyond their deep friendship, and they had experienced many moments over the past few years especially, but Clark would never make a move towards her, being reminded that despite all they had been through, she was a Princess from a mythical island and he was a newspaper reporter in the digital age. He would live thousands of years more and he would spend none of them with Diana as anymore than a friend. This is what he had decided even before they travelled to Asgard.

"Diana is my friend Bruce, I think the paranoia is finally getting to you, maybe you need to spend a little less time wearing the cowl and talking as if you have a constant case of laryngitis" Clark quipped, beginning to stand up, not at all pleased at Bruce's tone or chosen topic of conversation.

The moment Clark stood he immediately felt light-headed and stumbled to the left where he had to use his hand against the edge of the table to brace himself from falling._ "I don't get dizzy, what the hell is going on?"_ He thought, immediately beginning to feel an extreme sense of nausea overwhelm him. He looked up to see Bruce standing next to him holding a glowing yellow vial in front of his eyes.

"Do you know what this is Clark? It is concentrated yellow sunlight, or more specifically, a patented Wayne Industries invention that I am particularly proud of. Please don't pass out yet until you've heard this, it is really amazing" Bruce said, watching Clark begin to stumble around the dining room, as he finally decided to use his X-ray vision on the room.

"Why can't I see anything Bruce? Why can't I see through your suit? Did you lead-line this entire room?" The warm tone in Clark's voice was gone, replaced by the angry baritone of a Superman who was displaced.

"You're not paying attention to the vial Kent, it is the most important. I had decided against my better judgement to give you one last chance to admit to your pining feelings for the Princess, but once again you decided to pretend that you're just an emotionless automaton who is no good to anyone who cares for him. This vial is essentially a cure for kryptonite poisoning if say you were to ingest it by mouth for example".

Clark turned in horror to the half-eaten food on his plate, where now his super-vision, eventhough it was blurry, still managed to finally pick up the microscopic pieces of sickly glowing meteor rock that was laced all the way through it.

"Alfred really is an amazing cook and you are so bloody predictable, always blinded by your down-home country roots over everything else". Bruce moved closer to Clark, only to be roughly grabbed around the collar by the sick Kryptonian before him.

"Why Bruce? Why the hell would you do this?" The look of betrayal in Clark's eyes almost caused Bruce to break and help him..._almost. _

"You're not paying attention Clark, that was always yours and Diana's biggest problem, rushing in headlong without a strategy, but don't worry, your education is just beginning...here catch!" Bruce reached into his jacket pocket and tossed a quarter-sized rock at Clark's face, where he instinctively reached up and grabbed it, only to immediately drop it as if he had been scalded.

"More kryptonite Bruce? Why the hell would you throw it at me? You knew I would just drop it as soon as I caught it!" Clark said, putting some distance between him and the offending green rock.

"I needed you just a bit further to your left, where you're standing now and you're not easy to move when you don't want to". Bruce reached for his belt, triggering a hidden switch, immediately causing the ceiling to break open and a seven-ton hunk of concrete to fall towards Clark's head.

Eventhough his strength and senses had been affected by the kryptonite poisoning, Clark was still strong enough to catch the falling piece of rock with relative ease, holding it over his head, and turning to look at Bruce, who was just standing there watching him.

"You were trying to drop this on my head? That won't hold me Bruce, you know that" He said, and Bruce couldn't help but be momentarily impressed yet again by the way his friend nonchalantly held the large chunk of rock above his head, even with kryptonite coursing through his body.

"You're right Clark, you can hold up that rock pretty well on your own, now the floor on the other hand..." Bruce trailed off just as Clark glanced down to see the rich wood panelling on the floor give way. On any other occasion, Clark would merely have hovered there in flight, not requiring a floor to stand on, but Bruce was right that Clark was just weakened enough to slowly be brought down to the basement level where his cave was.

The moment his feet hit the ground with a soft thud, Clark immediately tossed the rock to his left, completely flattening Bruce's latest Batmobile in a fiery heap. Even in his weakened state, he couldn't help but smile as he listened to the slow escape of air from the crushed tires.

"You should know to never damage a man's car Clark, it just pisses him off"

Clark's eyes darted to his left and right, still not being able to make anything out in the darkness, and beginning to cough violently.

"You lined your entire cave with lead Bruce?! How long have you been planning this?" Clark bellowed out loud, now realizing that he would have to rely on his hearing if he wanted to find the hidden Dark Knight.

"Not just lined with lead Clark, you may notice you're beginning to have trouble breathing, that's what happens when there is two hundred pounds of kryptonite dust floating in the air down here". Clark's eyes moved to the right, briefly making out a dark shape moving on the right side of the cave.

His eyes glowed red, emitting a brief flare-pulse with his heat-vision, and catching a surprised Batman square in the chest, burning away his suit in an instant, revealing the armoured bodysuit underneath.

"That hurt Kent and that was my best dinner jacket, how did you know you wouldn't burn me up with that shot?" Bruce said, moving closer to where the armoured suit was waiting for him.

"Strategy Bruce, call it a bit of you rubbing off on me, once I realized your suit was lined with lead, I knew it was concealing more than just the kryptonite" Clark said, turning towards where he was now able to follow Bruce in the shadows.

"I don't care what kind of game you're playing, I'm leaving you down here, I'm done" Clark said and with that he began to float up towards the hole that he had fallen through.

"You don't get to leave that easily" Bruce responded, immediately flicking a switch to his left, causing the entire room to be bathed in red sunlight, immediately bringing Clark down to the floor of the cave with a loud thud.

"Red solar generator, courtesy of some Kryptonian technology at the Fortress, not enough to hurt you, but just enough to keep you from defying gravity again" Bruce commented, finally reaching the armoured suit and he began to power it up.

"What the hell do you want Bruce?" Clark shakily forced himself to his feet, pushing through the increasing level of kryptonite poisoning that was sapping at his solar-powered cells.

Clark listened for Bruce's response to again pinpoint his location, but instead was greeted by a loud noise, similar to that of a jet engine powering up, and was bathed in further red sunlight, coming from the new hostile source. Clark used his Kryptonian meditation techniques to force his eyes to focus, and they immediately widened upon realizing what it was.

It was a black monstrosity of a machine, towering in size, and made a noise like a screeching banshee when it moved. Clark's mouth opened in further surprise upon noticing the symbol of the Greek god Hephaestus on the suit's chest, immediately recognizing it as the salvaged breastplate from the armour of the Annihilator. He watched as the thing's gauntlets sprung to life, black metal being ripped apart to reveal glowing kryptonite gloves.

"This ends as soon as you admit it Clark".

Clark heard the amplified voice of Batman through the speakers as the suit began to move towards him.

"Admit what Bruce?" Clark watched the suit moving towards him, using his vision to begin to notice every moving joint, looking for a weak spot or opening to strike.

"That you're in love with Diana".

Clark froze at that sentence, his shock lasting less than a second, but it was enough for Batman to strike a full blow to the side of his head with the kryptonite gauntlets, sending him flying into the nearby cave wall with a sickening crunch.

Clark could not remember the last time he had been in so much pain, and so damned weak. He couldn't fly, he could barely move, and was lucky if he could see anything. And to make matter's worse, one of his best friends, a man who had called him brother not ten minutes ago, was the one who was doing it to him, and all because he wouldn't give in to Bruce's delusion that he was in love with the Amazon.

"Shut up Bruce. I'm not even going to acknowledge that train of thought anymore, I'm so tired of it".

Clark began to extract himself from the wall, only to be repeatedly punched back into it by shot after shot from the brutally aimed mechanical fists from the suit. He couldn't even begin to focus before he was knocked down again, repeatedly.

"Come on Clark. The. Sooner. You. Admit. It. The. Sooner. This. Ends" Bruce said, emphasizing each word with another strike to Clark's face or body, as he began to notice the gauntlets were beginning to become bloody, they having finally cut into the invulnerable flesh of the Man of Steel.

Clark was getting tired...fast. He had fought Batman on several occasions before for many different reasons, but never just because he wanted him to admit something, but Superman was not so easily beaten, even with all the kryptonite in the world. That was something he wasn't sure that Batman ever understood, that despite all his abilities, it was his will and resolve that won the tougher battles.

"I've had enough Bruce".

Bruce noted the change in Clark's voice in between strikes, noticing the cold and emotionless tone that it took. It was Clark's Kryptonian voice, his baser instincts coming to the surface._ "Now we're getting somewhere" _He thought to himself, but he stopped himself before allowing any satisfaction as he noticed the red glow coming from the darkness.

"Oh hell..."

Even inside his powered armour, Bruce felt the intense heat from a full-blast from Clark's heat-vision. "Jesus I didn't know he had that left in him" He thought as to his dismay, the blast from the heat had done exactly what Clark had wanted it to do, pulverize the kryptonite gloves and vapourize the dust in the cave's damp atmosphere, literally setting the air on fire.

"I'm leaving Bruce and this time you can't stop me".

Clark turned to leave the cave, simply walking through the armoured wall, his energy levels nearly depleted, and his exhaustion at such high levels that it took considerable effort just to put one boot infront of the other.

"Not so fast, we're not done". Bruce pressed a button to his immediate left, launching a lead ball no bigger than a baseball at Clark's head. Clark grabbed it out of mid-air and frowned at Bruce.

"More kryptonite? Really?" Clark said, just as he tossed it into the corner, before the poisonous rock could reveal itself from its metal shielding.

"Not just any kryptonite Clark, kryptonite flash-bang grenade" Bruce said, causing Clark to try to move as quickly as he could to shield his face, but he was a millisecond too late before there was an explosion followed by an intense green flash, immediately blinding him, causing him to cry out in pain.

Clark barely had time to register his lack of sight before he heard Bruce toss something else towards him.

"Bruce...what?" Before he could finish his sentence, Clark was brought to his knees again by an ear-splitting whine.

"That would be ultra-high-frequency Kryptonian radio-waves. You know that signal watch you gave Jimmy? Picture that noise right next to your ears amplified 1000x".

Clark began to stagger. He couldn't see. He couldn't hear anything. All he could feel was the blood pouring from his ears and his kryptonite-damaged pupils.

"You're done Kent, beaten by an ordinary human being, and all because you couldn't be a man yourself and admit that you love a woman" Bruce moved closer to Clark where he then proceeded to slap him to the side with the remaining stumps of the suit's arms.

Bruce looked down at the bloody heap that was left of the Man of Steel, and felt his sadness and bitterness that he had to push him this far, and yet the jack-ass was still being so damned stubborn. He was running out of options and Clark was close to losing consciousness.

"What about now? Can you..." He was brutally caught off guard by the sudden jerk in the cave floor, knocking him off balance and causing him to land hard on his back. He felt the cave lurch from left to right violently, causing his teeth to literally rattle in his skull. He hit the eject button, throwing him up into the air and away from the suit that was being ripped apart by the earthquake in the ground. He stared down to see that Clark had grabbed the floor of the cave and had begun to vibrate, causing the whole damn place to literally begin to shake apart.

Before he could even land back on the ground, Clark knocked him head-on, with a rough bodycheck to his chest, immediately knocking all the wind out of his lungs despite still wearing his base armoured suit. Next thing he knew, Clark hit him roughly in the side of the head, hard enough to snap his reinforced cowl right off and crack it into a thousand pieces, causing his ears to ring and his vision to blacken.

Clark picked his friend up by the neck of his armour and drew back his fist before slamming it into the cave wall next to his head. Bruce was surprised to see that tears were streaming down Clark's face, and not from anything that he had done to him.

"Of course I love her. That was never the issue. She's a Princess of the Amazons! God-damn it Bruce! I'm a farm-boy reporter from Kansas. I'm not good enough for her! I never was and I never will be! You think I didn't want to love her every night that we were in Asgard? How the hell did you think I could love her one night just to see her get killed the next?!"

Bruce exhaled, seeing the pain finally coming to the surface on his brother's face. _"There it is"._

"You're an idiot you know that, a right-round-idiot. You think Diana cares about any of that? You think her to be that shallow? God damn it Clark, she's loved you from the moment she saw you I think. For someone from a superior alien race, you can be really stupid" He said, as Clark slowly released his grip, causing Bruce to fall to the floor in a heap.

"You know what you have to do Clark, you've just admitted it to me and yourself. Stop being afraid and take a risk. We take so many every day. I took the risk when I pulled my cowl down for Selina to see who I was, it's your turn to tell her how you feel".

Bruce then shielded his eyes and turned to the cave wall, pulling down a massive switch, immediately flooding the cave with a burning yellow light.

In seconds, Clark felt all his strength and senses return to him, and he immediately felt better than he had in days.

"What was that?" He said, blinking and feeling that all of his cuts had healed.

"Concentrated solar-flare. After you came to the cave that one day with kryptonite poisoning, I figured I'd better have it ready. Can't have you dying in here. I'd never be able to move your dense body out of here" Bruce said, beginning to dust himself off.

"Why the hell did you put me through all of that Bruce just so that I would tell you that I loved Diana?"

Bruce sighed heavily, feeling all the exhaustion in his bones and head from what had just transpired. _"He gets a solar recharge and I get two weeks in intensive care, that is not a fair trade-off". _

"You both endangered the mission Clark, that is the most important thing, it always has been. Your side-stepping around the issue for so many years was finally beginning to take its toll, I can't have that" He said, moving closer to where Clark was standing, dazed by all that had happened.

"You're too mission-oriented for your own good Bruce. Did you really have to put me through all that and almost get both of us killed in the process though?"

Bruce regarded Clark and frowned slightly, "I'm not a matchmaker Kent. I handled this my way".

"No you're not, and you may be an ass, but I forgive you" He said, sticking his hand out to Bruce, who surprised that his friend had come around so quickly, took it and shook it.

"It's what brothers do for eachother" Bruce said, allowing a genuine smile to cross his face.

"So what now?" Clark said, looking around at the decimated cave.

"I clean this up and you get your ass to Themyscira and deal with your Princess is what".

"So you think just because you made me say that I loved her that I'm suddenly going to go off and tell her on her Amazon homeland?" Clark folded his arms over his chest, regarding Bruce with a skeptical look.

"Of course you are. You're mission-oriented just like I am, no matter what you say otherwise. And right now the mission calls for you to go there, so get the hell out of my cave"

Bruce then turned from Clark and began to survey the damage and figure out where to start.

"Oh and Bruce, one more thing?" Bruce turned in shock to see Clark's eyes glow red before a lance of heat sliced apart the miraculously-still-intact Batplane that was perched in the rafters, causing it to explode in a ball of flame.

"Jesus Kent, what the hell?!"

"Now we're even Bruce. I'll tell Diana you said hi"

Bruce shook his head in disbelief as Clark rocketed out through the ceiling and headed off towards the east.

Surveying the wreckage of the cave, Bruce sighed out loud.

_The things I do for my friends..._

**A/N: So Clark's on his way to tell Diana how he feels. Will he be able to get to her before things get out of hand? Next up, Diana arrives on Themyscira to visit her sister, who has some_ urgent_ news for her. **


	6. A Matter of Family

_What could be so urgent that my sister needed to call me?_

This was the thought that plagued Diana's mind her whole flight to Themyscira. She had considered briefly using the portal link that was at the embassy, but after that morning's incident with Black Adam and Mongul, not to mention the brief encounter with Kal and Bruce, she figured she could let off some steam by making the flight herself.

She momentarily cursed herself for thinking that right after the encounter was the best time to ask Kal out for a 'get-together'. None of her Amazon-training could have prepared her for the conversation that would have taken place if Bruce had not interfered.

"Thanks for helping out Kal, oh and by the way, did you want to maybe go on a date with your best friend that you did not make a move on when you had her alone for a thousand years".

She sighed out loud in frustration, glad that no one except the wind and the occasional bird could hear her in-sky rants about her love-life, or_ lack there-of._ She also knew that she would have to talk to her sister Donna about the predicament she currently found herself in, which she was not looking forward to. Donna had for many years teased and harassed Diana almost as bad as Bruce had about the prospect of a relationship between her and Superman. Diana rolled her eyes, remembering that it seemed that every time Donna decided to get more explicit in imagining certain aspects of Kal's anatomy, their mother Hippolyta had walked into the room, only to catch Donna mid-sentence and Diana furiously red (either from embarrassment or anger depending on the situation).

While initially the Amazon Queen had been extremely against any potential relationship for Diana upon her first arrival in Man's World, she was now taking a greater interest when Diana chose to share exploits of her battles and encounters with her, especially when she mentioned some of her male-counterparts in both the Justice League and in her cover-identity as Diana Prince. Despite her initial pushings over the past few years and constant verbal sparring with Diana, not even her mother could force anything about Kal out of her, and that was the way she intended to keep it.

_It is not the Amazon way to show weakness of any kind. _

Diana almost found herself spitting out the taste of bitterness that was in her mouth at the recalling of Philippus' early teaching mantra, knowing damn well already that her frustrations surrounding her deep love for Kal were beginning to affect both her work with the Justice League and with the embassy. She mentally reminded herself that she would have to apologize to both Julia and to J'onn when she got the chance for causing so much property damage during her sparring sessions at both the embassy at the Watchtower.

She also was still upset that Bruce had drove her to nearly breaking his jaw the last time he had tried to confront her about her feelings for the Kryptonian. She was still very glad that Kal had not heard about that encounter and that for some odd reason Bruce had decided not to tell him about it.

She briefly recalled Kal's facial expression when she left him to head off to Themyscira, there was something unsettling that she had begun to notice just over the past few months, a small change in his micro-expressions that she had almost immediately picked up on. She had initially dismissed it as a private matter and something that he had to deal with on his own, but in the cases where Kal had kept something from her, he would always come around and tell her about what had been on his mind and why he had chosen not to tell her up until that point, but he still had not said anything to her.

"And I was about to make it worse by adding a prospective relationship to his burden, well I won't make that mistake again" Diana sighed again, making a brief peace with the prospect that maybe fate would continue to block her from discussing anything more than friendship with him.

She briefly had a thought that brought an evil grin to her face, as she considered going to the Fates and attempting to personally manipulate it so the signs would be in her favour when _or if_ she tried to have that type of discussion with him again.

However, Diana quickly dismissed the thoughts as she noticed the Island coming into view and the dark brown specs on the horizon that were the approaching winged sentries that guarded the mystical world that was her home.

Diana allowed herself to stop in the air as the sentries came to greet her with much enthusiasm, their excited flight pattern making them seem like dogs in the sky running to greet their approaching mistress, glad that the Princess had chosen this route to come visit.

She briefly took in the marvel that was the collection of enchanted floating islands that made up Themyscira. The chiseled marble and golden trim on the buildings shone in the early afternoon sun, and the mystical haze that surrounded them made the entire area look like an Eden coming up out of the sky. She was able to finally push the morning's events and all thoughts relating to her dilemma regarding Kal out of her mind as one overarching thought found it's way through.

_It's good to be home._

As she neared the beachhead on the main part of the island, she noticed a contingent of Amazons approaching to greet her. She was briefly caught off guard by who was leading the delegation, noting Donna and Philippus immediately, but finding it odd that Artemis of the Bana tribe was leading the way with them.

Diana briefly had a flashback of several battles the two of them had had in their youth and Artemis' particular distain for men, particularly Kal. However, despite many attempts to goad him into combat or into saying something that would affirm all her negative views regarding mankind, he had always remained steadfast and polite, which seemed to frustrate her even more.

Diana touched down and her sister ran to embrace her immediately, as the remaining Amazons behind them, sans Philippus and Artemis, saluted the Princess immediately.

"It is good to see you my Sister" Diana said, drawing her sister into a tight embrace.

"It is good to see you as well, I'm glad the Batman was able to get my message to you" Donna said, deliberately referring to Bruce by his mantle, as both Artemis and Philippus were unaware of his secret-identity. Both sisters knew that if Artemis found out that the 'Demon-Man' masqueraded as a womanizing creep for a portion of his life, they would never hear the end of it. It would be like pouring kerosene on an already lit fire.

"Yes he was, and he added that there was urgency associated with the message and that I should get here as soon as I could". As excited as Diana was to visit her island, she knew she had been asked here for a specific reason, and Amazons did not use the word 'urgent' lightly.

"Oh that? That will have to wait until we can discuss it with mother a bit later. She is in meetings right now with a Thanagarian delegation and we know how well that can go over" Donna said, causing Diana to visibly wince. A meeting with Shayera's people was not something she envied her mother having to go through, as some of the Thanagarian leaders had tempers that could put even Hawkgirl's to shame. She was actually considered quite mild-mannered amongst her people, which Diana did not believe until she had met a handful of them.

"In that case, we have some time to catch-up, but what is she doing here?" Diana said, glancing over at Artemis, who was tapping her right foot in the sand, almost with a certain degree of annoyance.

"I came here to see if Man's world had made you any softer. Please don't come any closer, I can smell the Super-Man's sweat on you. How hard did he have to work before you gave it up for him?" Artemis drew closer, deliberately poking at Diana regarding Kal.

Diana kept her outside expression calm, and inside she was slightly frustrated. It was Artemis' way that when she wanted to pick a fight with Diana, she deliberately referenced her and Kal and the possibility that they had been intimate together recently. Despite wanting to accept her challenge and let off some steam, she was hesitant as she was worried that she could seriously hurt Artemis with the mood she was in right now.

"As much as I would love to give you a lesson in why you need to focus less on your man-hating and more on your combat form, I've been away from my home for too long and have much to discuss with my sister" Diana nodded coldly at Artemis, causing the tall crimson-haired woman's face to turn a shade that matched her locks.

"I should imagine that you would be too much of a coward for a rematch. Philippus, I would be ashamed if I were you to have trained a daughter of Hippolyta to be afraid to engage in a bit of sparring with a lowly Bana" Artemis commented, turning to the darker-skinned Amazon General, whose mouth tightened slightly, but still remained silent, merely glancing to Diana and allowing a small smile to tug at the corner of her lips, and then proceeding to nod in Artemis' direction with a small grunt.

Diana conceded and nodded at Philippus. The two of them had trained together for so long that Diana considered the woman her godmother and had nothing but a tremendous amount of respect and love for the battle-hardened Amazon warrior. It had gotten to the point where they did not even need words to communicate when they trained together and Philippus' nod spoke volumes to Diana.

_"Teach this disrespectful child a lesson Princess'. _

"I will not have the honour of my people, my mother, or my General questioned. You have your challenge Artemis, and because you have chosen to make this personal, so will I. Drop your sword, we'll settle this with our bare hands in honourable combat" Diana said, taking off the small short sword and lasso from her waist, before also removing her tiara allowing her dark hair to cascade freely around her shoulders.

"I've been looking forward to this moment since the last time we fought Princess, and I've been training non-stop as well. You're going to lose" Artemis commented, beginning to circle Diana as she proceeded to remove the multitude of weaponry that she had been carrying.

"That's what you say every time Artemis" Diana said, pretending to yawn as she did not even bother to move to face her.

"Don't mock me Princess! Don't tell me the reason for your mood is your pathetic pining for that man. Oh look at me, I'm Diana, Princess of the Amazons, and I cry every time Superman rejects my..." Artemis' taunting was brought to a screeching halt as Diana shifted forward and caught her in the jaw with a brutal right hook. sending her flying into the sand ten feet away.

Philippus and Donna could only watch as Diana immediately ran forward and grabbed Artemis by her hair, yanking her to her feet before proceeding to throw her again, this time out into the ocean, where she landed on her back with a loud crash.

Diana took the air as Artemis broke the surface, coughing and sputtering, completely caught off guard by Diana's aggressive attack. She barely had a moment to catch her breath before Diana grabbed her around the waist and hurled her skyward into the clouds.

Before Artemis could even begin to regret that she had goaded her into fighting, Diana was in the sky next to her, clasping her hands together and bringing them down with all her strength violently into Artemis' back, causing her to rocket back towards the ground.

Diana was not finished yet as she streaked through the sky, catching up to the plummeting Bana, before clasping her head in a vice with both hands and driving her viciously into the sand on the beach with a loud crack that sent a massive shockwave into the nearby trees, causing several birds to take to the sky in fright and surprise.

Philippus was particularly concerned by the primal viciousness that Diana had attacked Artemis with, her Amazon protege having shown nothing but an extreme level of control anytime they had sparred prior to this moment. Something was wrong and she was going to find out what it was. Diana was off-balance and Artemis was the vicitm of it as she had poked the sleeping tiger. However at this moment, she could only observe as Diana moved over to where Artemis was struggling to lift herself from the crater she had been put in.

Diana cradled Artemis' head, where blood had begun to seep from her nose and mouth, and smacked the side of her head so the Bana would meet her gaze, despite how disoriented she was.

"Listen to me Artemis. I do not mind engaging in sparring with you as it is always an enjoyable and practical challenge. However, if you ever take it upon yourself to be unnecessarily mean-spirited towards either my family or my friends, whether they be woman or man, I will not be so gentle with you next time" She said, and upon saying the word 'man', Artemis still managed a brief look of anger before spitting blood on Diana's face.

"Superman lover" She responded acidly, but immediately regretted it as Diana slammed her head back into the sand, this time knocking her out cold.

"Philippus, call for Epione, Artemis is going to need some help extracting herself from the beach" Diana said with no emotion in her voice, before beginning to walk towards the palace, her delighted sister Donna following next to her.

"Yes Princess, it is good to have you home" Philippus responded before heading to the Healing Isle to fetch the chief healer, as the group of Amazons that had been accompanying them began the process of trying to extract Artemis' head from the pile of sand that Diana had drove it into.

Diana and Donna walked in silence for a while, only speaking to greet their fellow Amazon sisters as they walked through the marketplace on their way towards the palace. Donna looked up at her sister's face, but Diana's visage gave nothing away to why she was so brutal with Artemis or why she seemed particularly distracted and short-tempered as of late.

"Diana, sooner or later you're going to have to tell me what's bothering you. Artemis always pushes you into sparring. In fact, her latest attempt seemed quite tame compared to some of the other vulgarities she has used on you. I believe the term in Man's world is 'She was more PG-13 this time'?"

Donna watched as despite remaining silent, a small smile appeared on her sister's face upon hearing her use slang that she no doubt had picked up from spending so much time with her boyfriend, who happened to be the Green Latern Kyle Rayner.

While initially Diana had been happy that Donna had found someone that she loved and who loved her back, she now cursed that they got together, as it seemed that since Donna was spending time with her man, she figured that Diana needed one as well, and she mentioned Kal more than anyone else when discussing 'possible suitors for the Princess'.

"Nothing is bothering me Donna, I am just tired of having to start every visit to my home with a fight with Artemis" Diana said, allowing a loud sigh of frustration to escape her lips, which Donna immediately picked up on as being about more than just Artemis poking at her.

"You can fool your Justice League comrades, you can fool Philippus or Mother, you can even try to fool yourself, but you cannot fool your sister" Donna said, before deliberately putting her hand on Diana's shoulder, stopping her beside the sheltered balcony that overlooked the market and the ocean beyond.

"I have no idea what you are talking about Donna, I think you've been spending too much time with Kyle" Diana said, leaning against the stone edge and watching the waves crash on the beach in the distance.

"That's my point Diana, I'm spending time with someone I love, and if that fight was any indication, it seems you are bottling up some serious love-related frustrations, and while I certainly do not have to resort to fighting with you to get it out of you, I am worried that you will not admit it yourself" Donna responded, crossing her arms in front of her and taking on a look of defiance that made Diana smile.

"Just because you've been enamoured with that boy for a few months does not make you an authority on my love-life and what are you talking about any way? What does me teaching Artemis a lesson have to do with anything?"

Diana found herself becoming slightly annoyed with the direction this conversation was headed. She had hoped coming home would allow her to take her mind off her conflicted feelings regarding Kal, but it seemed Themyscira was just going to make the situation worse, as if that was possible.

"Everything Diana. You have been on edge for what seems like years. You used to be so much more controlled and…diplomatic, but now you have become slightly erratic and if I may say so, you have become something of a lousy Amazon". Donna decided it was best to not dance around the issue and just spell out her concerns for her sister. Diana appreciated the direct approach and Donna knew that, which is why Diana decided to respond to her, despite her better judgment.

"I am not supposed to feel this way".

Donna was surprised and left briefly speechless by the heavy emotion that laced Diana's voice as she watched her sister close her eyes and lean further on the balcony, causing it to begin to crack slightly, as if she was carrying a huge weight on her back.

"Not supposed to feel this way about what Diana? You can tell me what's bothering you" Donna said, reaching out and placing her hand on the middle of Diana's back, letting her sister feel her concern and the love that she had for her.

"I am not supposed to feel this way about him. I have been able to keep it together for over a thousand years and now I am feeling myself come apart at the seams. I nearly broke Bruce's jaw a few months ago when he confronted me about my feelings, and just now all Artemis had to do was briefly insult him and I almost killed her".

Diana finally opened her eyes to regard her sister's reaction to that admission, but was surprised when Donna smacked her in the side of her head, and responded with a great deal of annoyance in her voice.

"Of course you feel that way about him, and you don't have to say who him is, we both know you're talking about a certain man who likes to dress in red and blue. You say you've been able to keep it together up until now? Well guess what? You haven't! You've been off-balance ever since you met him and so has he. Gods you two are absolutely impossible! He's a walking-near divine Apollo-like sun-god and you're the fearless Amazon warrior who faced down Ares at the Gates of Tartarus and you behave like insecure pre-teens when you're around eachother!"

Diana's eyes widened in surprise at her sister's matter-of-fact response, and found herself left speechless.

_"Was it really that obvious?"_ Diana thought she had maintained the perfect level of coolness and diplomatic presence anytime someone had brought up Kal around her, and even she herself had only recently within the past few weeks begun to even acknowledge the feelings that were inside her regarding the Man of Steel.

"Yes Diana it is that obvious" Donna interrupted her train of thought and reading her line of thinking in the same breath. "And it's obvious to Mother as well".

Diana did not like the sound of that last bit as she could only guess as to what her mother had planned for her, especially when she found out what she had done to Artemis after she had insulted Kal. In fact if Diana knew her mother, Hippolyta already knew about their skirmish and was already planning on how she would handle her daughter's latest outburst.

"That is not a conversation I am looking forward to" Diana groaned, moving away from the balcony and leaning her head against the wall.

"If I were you I wouldn't worry too much. As far as Mother is concerned, she most likely has been planning your wedding for the past ten years. After she heard that Superman had fought by your side for a thousand years and not once tried to _take advantage _of you, she pretty much gave him a free pass to court you" Donna commented, laughing when Diana jerked up at her comments.

"What are you talking about?! Mother gave Kal a 'free pass' to ask me out on a date?" Diana said, causing Donna to laugh even harder.

"Don't worry Diana, she has not spoken to him directly, so calm down before you break something, I believe her words to me upon learning about his restraint were 'Now there is a man who is worthy of my daughter' or something along those lines" Donna enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing Diana's face light up slightly upon learning that their mother had pretty much already approved of him.

"But remember, you know Mother, just because she would give him permission to court you if he asked does not mean he is not in for a world of hurt when he asks. No doubt mother has already planned an entire week-long event of fights and challenges for him, and is just waiting for him to ask".

The brief elation that Diana had experienced was quickly brought back down to earth, as she realized that Donna was correct. Hippolyta sure as hell was not going to make it easy for him, even if he was the only man that she would ever approve of her dating.

"This is all well and good but I am unsure how he feels. He has been so guarded lately and so on edge, he almost goes out of his way to engage in every battle he can" Diana said, briefly reminding herself how difficult Kal had been lately, and how hard it was to get any time alone with him before something or someone interrupted them.

"Guarded and on edge? Quick to confrontation? That sounds familiar sister. Give me a break, the guy went to Asgard with you for a thousand years just because you asked him to. He's practically crawled on his hands and knees for you. I'm willing to bet he's even given you flowers on one or two occasions and you're not even dating".

Diana couldn't help but laugh at that last bit, remembering that for her last birthday, Kal had used Kryptonian science to biologically engineer a new species of orchid that he had presented to her in a case that would preserve it in full bloom for a long period of time.

"Yeah that's what I thought. The man is head over heels in love with you Diana, but I think you may have to make the first move. He waited a thousand years and didn't want to 'risk the friendship', so I think you have to take the no-nonsense Amazon approach if you want him to admit to those feelings".

Diana was pleased to see that at least her sister agreed with her on that point, that it was about time she used her Amazon training for this situation, to just grab Kal and throw him over her shoulder, or just keep hitting him until he came around. She smiled briefly at the possibility, but then realized that a good straightforward heart-to-heart was what they needed. It was how they had dealt with so many other matters in the past.

"Besides Diana, it is better that he go through all of mother's trials and gain her approval that way. The last thing we need is for you to start dating in secret, and then she walks in when you're all hot and heavy going at it in the bathroom at the embassy".

Diana blushed furiously and responded immediately, deciding to tease her sister a little bit after she had been badgering her for last little while.

"Well she wouldn't catch us in the bathroom, now the closet on the other hand…" Diana led on, causing Donna to gasp, caught off guard slightly by Diana's small admission of one of her personal fantasies.

"What would I catch you doing in the closet Diana?"

Diana and Donna froze mid-conversation, before turning to see a rather bemused Queen of the Amazons watching them, dressed in a floor-length white tunic and blood-red Spartan-like cape, her simple golden crown adorning her head.

"How long have you been standing there Mother?" Donna spoke first, having been the first of the sisters to find her voice.

"Long enough to learn just how inappropriate princesses can be when left alone together" Hippolyta said, allowing a small smile to cross her features, amused at how her full-grown adult daughters could still be made to look like scared children when the opportunity presented itself.

"I apologize Mother, these feelings regarding Kal-El are newly revealed to both myself and Donna, and I am still dealing with them as such" Diana said, bowing her head in respect to the Queen.

"Do not worry Diana" Hippolyta said, waving her hand dismissively. "It is not you who needs be concerned about incurring my wrath, it is Kal-El. However, I leave it to you to get him here in the first place to answer to me. If my ears do not deceive me, you two have some things to sort out, yes?"

"Yes you are correct Mother, I am unsure if my feelings are reciprocated, despite what my sister or others may say to the contrary, but I will speak to him when the next moment presents itself" Diana replied, allowing the Amazon hardened-resolve to creep into her tone of voice.

"Now there's the Amazon I raised" Hippolyta said, leaning forward and embracing Diana.

"It is good to see you Mother" Diana said finally, returning her mother's embrace tightly.

"As it is for me to see you Daughter, but we have more important things to discuss now. Your love-life will have to take a backseat to what is about to come and I have a feeling that you are not going to like what my Amazon spies have found out…" Hippolyta responded, allowing a slight break to enter into her voice, a certain degree of apprehensiveness.

The Queen's comments and tone caused both Diana and Donna to look at eachother in concern. Amazons lived for combat, so the fact that Hippolyta seemed on edge was concerning for both of them. The last time Hippolyta had been on edge, they had almost lost the Amazon homeland to the undead hordes of Tartarus.

Diana had known her Mother since birth and couldn't help but feel a cold chill run up her spine.

_What could be so concerning that it scared the Queen of the Amazons?_

**A/N: What's got Hippolyta worried? Next time it's finally time to reveal the big bads as the deadly alliance comes about, including one that I know you all won't see coming. Then it's off to Smallville as Kal stops off to visit his mother on the way to Themyscira.**_  
_


	7. Courting Death

_What was I thinking coming here?_

Ares quickly banished the thought from his head and continued to move forward down the dark stone corridor. He had to keep reminding himself that the all-powerful God of War does not feel fear, nor pain, nor will ever succumb to death. He did not even feel fear when Wonder Woman had held the Blade of Hephaestus to his neck. Even if he had been slain that day, he would have risen again. War, conflict, and death fueled him and gave him power, and the world could not exist without those things. He steeled his resolve, reminding himself of his omnipotence time-and-time again, which is how he was able to keep moving down the hallway towards the chamber at the end.

He briefly cursed at the thought, remembering that day he and his demon hoards had battled against Wonder Woman and her Amazon forces. He gritted his teeth, remembering that if it had not been for the timely arrival of the Justice League, Themyscira would be a smoking crater and the Amazon Queen Hippolyta and her daughters would be in chains somewhere, used only for his carnal amusements.

Instead he had been punished by Zeus, the scar of his father's lightning still running up the left-side of his face. Although he was a god, Ares did not suffer from vanity as his brothers Apollo and Hermes did, constantly obsessing over their appearance to better seduce nymphs and mortal women. He constantly smelled of death, his body caked in the ash of a thousand burned corpses, and his armour permanently stained with the spray of both mortal and immortal lifeblood. He had no shortage of women in his bed, because as grotesque as he was, he was sometimes a welcome change for some of the goddesses, as Aphrodite had been a frequent guest beneath his sheets. The dichotomy of love and war brought together and for a moment there could be peace, but it never lasted. So the scars upon his visage did not anger Ares because it made his face look slightly different, it angered him because it was a constant reminder of his failure. He had endured too many years with the scarring, it had made him desperate and a desperate God of War was a dangerous thing indeed.

Ares knew he was desperate because nothing else would have brought him to this hallway, because the truth was that the God of War did feel fear, he just had not up until that moment. He studied the strange symbols on the hallway walls, the language unknown to him, but he recognized the images of battles past and the images of large creatures being worshiped by much smaller mortals. He was all too accustomed to that, but this was different, he was about to literally court violence and chaos. He should be having the time of his life, that he was about to bring about death and destruction on a level he never had before or had even dreamed of doing.

He briefly allowed himself to admire the Greek heroes of old that he had fought both alongside and against, now that he understood their fears in battle all too well. For the first time in his long life, Ares was required to take a risk and to show himself that he was not a coward at heart, because even though he knew that the evil force he was about to speak to face-to-face had the power to permanently kill him, he still moved forward, driven by his resolve for vengeance. He would rain fire down on the Amazon homeland and on Olympus as well and he was willing to pay any price that was asked of him.

Ares took a deep breath as he emerged from the darkened hallway into a much larger chamber adorned with massive piles of gold and gems that would make even Zeus jealous. Along the walls were beautifully woven and painted tapestries depicting life from that point in history, perfectly preserved despite being thousands of years old. Along with all the treasure, Ares' divine senses immediately picked up on the supernatural forces that were literally soaking the air with ancient magic. He briefly had to consider that he was almost completely ignorant of the proper incantations to wake the creature that most likely lay dormant within the chamber, however he had expected to see a casket, a coffin, even an urn that would indicate someone was buried here.

He felt a breeze in the air which was odd as there was nothing down here that would cause a draft of any kind. He watched as the breeze lazily made its way around the room, lighting torches along the wall in multiple bursts of flame. He turned to his right and watched in amazement as some of the strange symbols along the wall began to shift, morphing themselves into the Greek that Ares understood.

_The debt must be paid in blood_

Now this Ares understood without a moment's hesitation. He actually found himself feeling slightly better as he unsheathed the dagger at his waist before proceeding to slice open his palm with it, reveling in the pain that it caused. He was the God of War, he lived for pain and suffering, and as he could not usually feel the pain, he particularly enjoyed that he could see what the Hephaestus-crafted weapon could do to himself. He did not consider himself a masochist...he was masochism incarnate. It was part of the reason why he engaged in a relationship with Aphrodite, he hated her and all that she stood for, and yet he couldn't help but find himself drawn to her.

He dismissed the brief thought of Aphrodite and placed his bloody hand on the wall where the inscription had changed. He immediately regretted that decision as he felt himself robbed of a certain extent of his divine power, causing pain to rip through his body, making him cry out in pure agony before being brutally thrown backward from the wall. He shuddered in a heap, his whole being on fire. He reached up and was surprised to find tears coming from his blood-shot eyes. He could have stayed on the floor and waited for the pain to subside, but the defiant god fought his way to his feet, finally finding his voice and choking out his rebuttal;

"I am Ares! I am War! I am Death! Reveal yourself spirit now!"

Ares had already made many mistakes that day, but attempting to call out the dark force that had managed to hurt a god was most likely the worst decision he had ever made up until that point in his extremely long lifespan. He immediately felt a chill run up his spine, causing him to involuntarily shiver. He felt weak and tired, completely drained, and he was beginning to think that he should cut his losses and just leave, find some other way to bring fire to Olympus.

_"You are nothing godling"_

A dark voice rang out through the chamber, a voice that sounded like death come to life. Ares whipped his head around to find the source of the voice and watched unmoving in horror as the blood on the wall shifted into columns of thick black smoke that began to move together along the floor, making their way towards what Ares now noticed was a massive ornate throne sitting atop the highest pile of treasure.

_"You have made a grievous error in coming here, thinking you could ask favour of me"_

Despite his unnatural fear Ares still managed to find his voice yet again, this time allowing some of his cunning to enter into his speech, as he began to remember why he had even come to this unholy crypt in the first place.

"I come to you to ask for your aide Lord. I require assistance dealing with a persistent annoyance and I am prepared to offer anything to accomplish those means"

Ares bowed before the moving smoky columns that were approaching the golden throne, and had begun to take on the shape of a large creature that briefly caused him further unease noticing the initial immense size of the yet fully formed apparition.

_"You have nothing I want. Chaos. Death. These are my domain and in this world they are plentiful"_

Ares had been ready for that response, he knew this creature's history and what he wanted. He was the God of War and Strategy, there was no way in hell he was not coming prepared, especially for this.

"She has found a way to awaken him"

Ares did not have to elaborate any further, he knew the creature before him knew exactly what he was talking about and if he had any doubts, they were removed the moment those words left him. He found himself knocked back and slammed into the wall with a brutal force that actually knocked the wind out of him, driving him to his knees and violently coughing up blood.

"Well that was naughty" Ares said to himself, wiping his lips and lifting his head to watch as the smoke finally took on its final form.

"By Zeus..."

It had the head of a jackal, fierce teeth and sharp pointed ears. Blood red eyes looked straight through Ares and into his immortal soul, living storms of souls that he had taken over many thousands of years. Its body was that of a strongly built man, muscles viciously cut and veins pulsing with blood made of liquid fire. The skin covering it was unnatural, the colour of heavy storm clouds, and Ares could not help but think of his father as lightning seemed to flash across its chest, almost like a hurricane was trying to rip its way out of the body.

It was chaos-incarnate, a walking storm given the form of man, the embodiment of violence.

He was Set, the Egyptian God of Chaos, the Lord of Red and Disorder.

_"What do you speak of godling?! He is dead! The magic is not strong enough to revive him!"_

Ares allowed himself to smile inside, now allowing the powerful deity before him to become any angrier than he already made him. He had known exactly what he was getting into when he entered the Egyptian tomb in the first place.

The story of Set was of the content of legends and stories now told to children. Jealous of his brother Osiris, God of the Underworld for marrying the beautiful Isis, he had tricked the god into sealing himself in a massive box before brutally mutilating him. Briefly Set had believed that he had finally defeated his brother having scattered his body parts across the world, and would finally have Isis for himself, but he had not counted on the deep love that Isis had for Osiris. After many years Isis had recovered all the missing pieces of his body, and reassembled him, turning him into a living mummy, but he could not set foot on the earth as he was still dead, so he was confined to the Underworld, where he now remained, ruling over it with Isis at his side, while Set remained alive and able to move about in the mortal realm.

Ares had only recently found out from Black Adam that Isis had found a way to return Osiris to true life, giving him the ability to walk on the earth once again, and further amplifying Set's failure at having tried to kill his brother.

"Teth-Adam, your old Egyptian champion, still lives. It was he who told me where to find you, and he who informs me that Isis is presently on her way to visit the Grecian island of Themyscira to ask for permission from the Amazon Queen there and also the Olympian pantheon if she can perform the ancient ritual there that is necessary to return her husband to the life that you took from him"

Ares watched as Set's skin seemed to boil upon hearing this news and briefly feared for his life, knowing that Set was near-all-powerful, most likely at the same degree of Zeus, if not higher.

_"Teth-Adam? I have not heard that name in many millennia. Very well godling, what boon do you ask of me in exchange for this information?"_

Despite the fact that he was the embodiment of chaos, Ares knew that the Egyptian god before him was a practical and cunning being. He had given him information that Set had deemed satisfactory and therefore the laws of Ra dictated that he offer Ares something in return to balance the scales.

"I want to help you lay waste to the island and bring siege to Mount Olympus. I will put my army at your disposal my Lord Set and we will set fire to this world. We will ensure that Osiris never rises from his underground prison"

Ares watched as the storms quieted on the god's body, as the jackal's face took on that of a twisted grin.

_"What do you get out of this Greek God of War?"_

Ares finally allowed himself to smile and spoke the words that had been worth the risk of coming here.

"The death of Wonder Woman and the Justice League".

**A/N: Fluff takes a break as the evil awakens! Next up it's off to Smallville as Clark visits his mother before heading off to Themyscira. For those comic-book aficionados like myself, please note that the Isis I reference above is not the one that Black Adam loves, but the Egyptian goddess and wife to Osiris. **


	8. Small Town Roots

_There really is no place like home. _

Clark could not help but smile as that thought crossed his mind just as the outskirts of Smallville began to come into view...outskirts of course meaning a series of farmers' fields that he recognized. Smallville was not exactly a victim of the urban sprawl that affected some of the larger cities like Metropolis and Gotham. Despite a thriving tourism and farming industry, Smallville still had a population of less than 20,000, and most of that was in the outlying area surrounding what could be politely referred to as the downtown. Despite being an 'All-American' himself, Clark was pleased that none of the larger chains had made their way into his beloved small town. While a certain degree of naivety could attribute that to the small-town businesses being strong enough to fend them off, the fact was that Smallville was just too...small.

While he was not as concerned regarding the protection of his secret identity as he had been in the past as several of his fellow Leaguers knew him as Clark Kent, he would still rather die than give it up, for several reasons. Besides the obvious that his loved ones would be put in danger, it would also destroy any semblance of his roots and upbringing, as the moment Smallville was branded as _Superman's hometown_, it would be destroyed almost immediately, either by a massive flux of tourists or a super-villain attack who just wanted to get back at him for some reason, and Clark would lose yet another home.

Clark began to fly lower, skimming over the seemingly-endless fields and livestock. As he tended to take the same route in every time he did not spook either the animals or the farmers that tended them. He was not concerned about anyone noticing that Superman flew over Smallville often because the fact was that he was Superman, he flew over _everywhere_ often.

He closed his eyes and let the warm evening air whip around his face and all he allowed himself to hear was the sound of his cape as it rustled in the wind.

_He needed this. _

He needed to be calm before he travelled to Themyscira, it was why he took the flight-path that took him over his home. Whereas Bruce had forced him to accept feelings that had been welling up in him for some time, he did not want to fly off to catch Diana off-guard. He needed time to think, to put together what he was going to say. He was a Kryptonian, a child born of logic, and no amount of his small-town roots could change that, and if anything they made them more intense. He briefly recalled his father Jonathan spending many late nights with several weather charts and papers spread over the kitchen table as he calculated how they could make the most out of that year's growing season. Anyone who ever questioned the intelligence of a Kansas farmer was quickly brought about to see the error of their ways once they understood the intricacies that were necessary to take on the profession. Some uneducated people refer to it as an extreme form of gambling, spending thousands of dollars on equipment, livestock, and crop seed, all in the hopes that it would pay off with a bountiful harvest. But for a multi-generation farmer like Clark's father, it was never a gamble, it was a calculated operation that always provided the necessary yield to provide for his family.

He allowed himself a brief sigh of sorrowful remembrance for his adopted father. He missed the man greatly, and felt that in this case it would have been nice to hear some fatherly advice on what his next course of action regarding Diana should be. He had to get into a fight with his best friend where they nearly killed eachother just so he would admit to his feelings for the Amazon Princess in the first place. He had no doubt that his father would have exposed his feelings much earlier and gone about it in a much kinder manner than Bruce had.

As the Kent farm came into view, he noticed his mother sitting on the porch of the old farmhouse, and he immediately felt much better. Martha Kent was as tough and as wonderful a woman as there could ever be. No one else would ever imagine that Superman was still slightly intimidated by his mother, or that a man who could catch a tank shell was brought to shame when he had been mischievous in his youth. Clark enjoyed the memory of his mother telling him to "Sit down!" After which he would sulk while his mother brought the proverbial hammer down on him. As he got older Martha began to tell him that she was always proud of him, even when he was behaving he was still in control of himself, the fact that a toddler who could destroy the town with a tantrum, would still dutifully sit down and do what his parents asked of him...most of the time.

"Ma! I'm home!" Clark yelled as soon as he came within earshot.

"I know Clark! You'd think by now you'd know that I can hear the sound of my handiwork coming from three counties away" She got up, smiling at her approaching son.

Clark self-consciously touched the 'S' on his chest. The cape may be Kryptonian-made but the suit he wore had been crafted by his mother. People thought when they saw the outfit and the way that it stood up to punishment that it must have been crafted on an alien planet, but in the words of Martha Kent "Kryptonian materials are just as easy to put together as any ball of sheep wool". This was also why Clark felt safe leaving his mother at home in Smallville by herself. Not only were her clothes woven with Kryptonian materials, but the entire grounds of the Kent farm had been equipped with alien and mystical technologies that had been gifts from both well-wishers and his League allies.

He touched down in front of her and immediately drew her into a warm hug. It was good to be home and see his mother.

"Ma it's good to see you" Clark said, sighing deeply while holding her gently.

"It's good to see you too son"

Martha Kent could not help the fact that she knew her son as well as she did. She had always been able to tell when something was wrong ever since that first moment when that rocket had landed on their property so many years ago. It was her nature to know her son, no matter how old or strong he got. He was Superman to the world, but he was still Martha's little boy.

"Something is on your mind dear, I could tell the moment I sensed you were on your way" She said, watching Clark's eyes drift downward, knowing that she'd caught onto something very important right away.

"It's Diana mom. I love her".

Clark was very surprised to hear those words come out of his mouth. The bluntness, no further thought, just pure and simple truth. It was then that he realized that Bruce had been right in his assessment, once he had admitted the truth to himself he may as well have been talking about the weather and not the deepest feelings in his heart. However, his surprise at the ease he was able to speak of love for Diana was nothing in comparison to his surprise at his mother's reaction.

"Yes dear, now come inside and have some pecan pie. I just finished making it and I know how much you love it".

Martha could not help but smile as she turned around from her son's gaping expression and began to make her way into the kitchen. Of course her son loved Diana, and she knew that Diana loved him just as much. Just because Jonathan had passed away a few years prior did not mean that Martha was blind to the extreme tensions that existed between the two nor the intense energy that radiated from them when you simply mentioned the other's name.

_"I am just glad he figured it out now. I was thinking I would be senile or six feet under before he admitted it"_ Martha thought to herself.

Clark stood there rooted to the porch floor for another few moments before the shock wore off and he hurried after his mother into the rustic yet spacious kitchen of the Kent family home.

"What do you mean 'yes dear'? I just told you I loved Diana and that's all I get?!" Clark queried, allowing some annoyed disbelief to enter his voice.

"Clark Kent you lower your voice in the house, you know that. Now as for your confession regarding Diana, of course you love her, I think you've loved her since the first moment you came back to visit me after you met her. What were your words exactly?" Martha enjoyed as Clark turned a deep shade of crimson and collapsed into a chair at their oak dining table and buried his face in his hands.

"Please Ma, don't bring that up!"

Martha thought briefly about sparing her son the embarrassment but then decided that he'd made her wait long enough to admit it, maybe he needed to suffer a bit.

_"She's so pretty Mom, she's a Princess"_ Martha watched with delight as he groaned out loud at the recounting. Clark had barely been out of his teens when he had met Diana for the first time and spoke of her like he was a lovesick four year old with his first crush. It was amusing to see the most powerful being on the planet fawning over her the way that he did.

"Why is it so obvious to everyone?! This wasn't easy for me to admit but it seems that everyone else was just waiting for me to wise up. I bet even Hippolyta knows that I love her daughter" Clark sighed in frustration, adding that last part as an exaggerated joke, but then pausing when he saw his mother shift uncomfortably on her feet.

"Wait a minute. You're not telling me that Diana's mother knows? How do you know that?"

Martha enjoyed that Clark's face drained of all colour at the prospect of Diana's mother being aware of his feelings for her daughter. It made her happy that he was actually seemingly scared to death of facing her, it meant to Martha that she had really raised a gentleman.

"Polly and I have been friends for a long time Clark. You think you're the only one who has mystical allies? She came to me quite early on in your two knowing eachother. She wanted to meet the woman who had raised this Super-Man. I can tell you she was quite surprised when she met Jonathan and myself".

Clark was just sitting there in disbelief. _Her mother knew Hippolyta, and well enough to refer to her as Polly? _Clark had never even heard Diana refer to the Amazon Queen as anything other than Hippolyta or Mother. As if she heard his train of thought, Martha further explained.

"She actually showed up at our front door. Damn near gave poor Jonathan a heart attack out of fright when she arrived brandishing that sword with two spear-wielding bodyguards. She confronted me about what she saw as mutual feelings between you and Diana and her concern for her daughter _being corrupted _by you, my son. Needless to say I think I caught her off-guard when I did not back down, and I still think she was quite surprised to see this petite lady as your mother. I invited her and her guards in and we continued the conversation over dinner. I have never seen a woman eat that much potato salad in my life, you'd think she'd never had Kansas barbecue before" Martha laughed at both the memory and the look on Clark's face.

"So what happened after that?" Clark said, now digging into the pie, trying to take his mind of the shock from his mother's revelations.

"She has come to visit at least once a month for the past 10 years Clark. Each time she comes, she and I both grow more frustrated at both of your inactions. She initially said that you would not be a worthy son-in-law because you did not face up to your feelings earlier, but as Diana did not either, she eventually got past that, and we realized that you both would come around when you were ready. We knew long ago that it would only be a matter of time, and you both did not need either of us interfering".

Martha noticed the elation of Clark's face that Diana's mother seemed to already approve of their union, and decided it only fair to quickly bring his head out of the clouds and back down to reality.

"Just because Polly approves of you for her daughter, do not think that means that she will go easy on you or that I will go easy on Diana. We both know this. She has elaborately described her plan to test your worthiness on Themyscira once you formally ask for Diana's hand in courtship. You'll be walking into hell my son, and I'm partially to blame as I have had a hand it giving Polly some ideas as to what to put you through".

Clark was in disbelief at that moment, that not only did Hippolyta already have a series of tests set up for him to see if he was worthy of Diana, but his mother had actually played a role in helping her design it.

"I haven't even spoken to Diana about these feelings and already you two are planning how to make me suffer for it when I do?"

He couldn't help but feel slightly off-put by how much detail and planning so many people had put into their eventual getting together. He had initially thought of maybe questioning his mother as to what would have happened if they had never gotten together, but he decided not to even bother. Mothers knew their children very well, and Martha was no exception, and both she and Clark knew that.

"You both have already taken a long time to admit to these feelings dear. Consider what Polly has in store for you a punishment from both her and myself that you took this long" Martha said, leaning in and giving her son a kiss on the cheek.

Clark could not help but marvel in his mother's strength and the way that she had just yet again put the Man of Steel in his place.

"I was actually on my way to speak to her, but I decided to stop in and clear my head before I did" He said, and was immediately met by the stern glare of his mother and her immediate clipped rebuttal.

"And how is your head now? Clear?! Good! Now get your caped butt out of my home and go tell that poor woman how you feel before I go and get some of that kryptonite out of the cellar and drag you there myself!"

Clark laughed and drew his mother in again for a hug, which she returned, laughing along with her son.

"I'll tell both of them that you said hello" Clark said as he began to move toward the door.

"The coin has two sides Clark, you remember to tell Diana that she is due for a visit to the farm as soon as she can".

Clark stopped and shuddered briefly. He did not envy what Diana would have to go through with his mother. Diana loved Ma and she loved Diana but that was not going to stop her from grilling her into the ground. Clark was also willing to bet that Hippolyta had given Martha some advice as well on how to better test her daughter.

"I will Ma, see you soon!"

And with that Clark shot out of the doorway and into the sky, streaking towards the hidden island and where he knew Diana would be staying. He was a man on a mission, his head clear and his aims true.

_He was a man in love and he had a job to do. _  
**  
A/N: So Clark is off to Themyscira to speak to Diana. Will he get there before all hell breaks loose? Next up it's back to the Themyscira where Hippolyta has a very special guest to introduce Diana to on the island. Who's up next?**


	9. Love Never Dies

_What could have the Queen both excited and scared at the same time?_

This was the thought that was running through Diana's head as she watched her mother walking at a brisk pace just in front of her. There seemed to be a combined sense of hesitancy and excitement at the same time in her step, almost like a child heading down to open presents on Christmas morning except they weren't sure if they were going to get presents or a lump of coal. She had tried to query her mother time and time again as they had walked through the courtyard and into the palace regarding who or what was waiting for them but she had been met with silence as it seemed the Queen was single-minded in her task of waiting until they were inside before she told them what was going on. In the meantime Donna decided to fill the agonizing steps with her own social commentary that had Diana wishing they were engaged in life-threatening battle at that exact moment, as it would have been a much needed distraction and stress-reliever.

"So you and Superman eh? Your babies are going to be a handful you know that?" Donna teased, watching her sister turn a bright shade of red at the mention of the potential that she and Kal may have offspring at some point.

"You're getting way ahead of yourself Donna, I still need to talk to Kal about all of this. There is a lot to sort out here. Things are not as simple as just admitting that we have feelings for eachother and then retiring to a bedroom" Diana responded, although she had to admit privately to herself that there had been several bedroom-related fantasies as of late.

"Of course it's that simple Diana, how do you think Kyle and I got together?"

Diana turned to her sister with wide eyes and open mouth. She could not believe that her sister would have slept with Kyle so soon after admitting to their mutual feelings.

"Oh don't worry, it was worth that just to see the look on your face. Kyle and I were together for almost a year before we were intimate with eachother. It truly is a beautiful moment when you find the right person for yourself. However Diana, you and Kal are not Kyle and myself, you were together for a thousand years and that was just in Asgard. What could you possibly have left to do with him before getting between the sheets?" Donna replied, causing Diana to let out a sigh of relief that her sister had at least waited for a time before sleeping with Kyle.

"That is exactly the reason why it is not simple Donna, because it has been so long that we have known eachother. I did not wait over a thousand years to finally be with that man to rush anything. I want to feel every sensation when we are together and I want to remember every detail"

Donna watched as her sister spoke regarding her desires to take things slow with Kal with a certain degree of delight. The smile on her face spoke volumes as to how she was feeling and Donna truly could not remember the last time that she had seen her sister so happy. She privately hoped that Superman did indeed feel as strongly about her as she did about him.

Diana had to admit to herself that her stomach had been full of butterflies ever since she realized that soon she would reveal to Kal what was in her heart. She was exceedingly nervous despite many attempts to quell her fears. She was an Amazon, she did not feel fear in the most intense battles when blood was running through the soil under her feet, and yet here she was, nearly shaking with concern. However, she managed to stow these thoughts in the back of her mind for the moment as she entered into the palace throne room where two women stood waiting.

Both Diana and Donna could not help but gasp and immediately stop in their tracks as they immediately recognized one of them. The slightly shorter woman on the right was Hera, Queen of the Olympian Gods, the all-powerful goddess herself. She was dressed in a dark purple evening gown that seemed to glow with an unearthly light, and wore a simple golden tiara over her light brown hair that sparkled with the dust of a thousand stars. Both sisters were immediately drawn to her eyes before anything though as they shone with a multitude of colours, almost as if her irises were twin rainbows and her face was made of the reflecting sunlight. She was truly a sight to behold, and she stood with the authority that she knew that she had, and yet still managed to smile in a way that made people around her feel at ease.

Hippolyta quickly bowed separately to both women which surprised Diana and Donna, who had initially only bowed to Hera. _Who besides the Queen of the Gods would their mother actually bow in respect to?_ Hera immediately noticed the confusion on their faces and addressed them directly in a voice that seemed to lightly echo around the palace walls.

"Hippolyta, do not tell me that you did not tell your daughters who they would be seeing today? That is horribly cruel" Hera said, allowing a musical laughter to enter into her voice.

"Apologies Goddess, I was not sure what you wished me to reveal to them prior to this moment. I figured it prudent to allow you and your guest the courtesy of explaining the situation yourself" Hippolyta responded shortly, bowing slightly again to the Queen.

Hera waved her hand dismissively in the air, "Do not worry Queen of the Amazons, I appreciate you waiting for that reason. The last thing I would want is a situation as important as this to be misinterpreted in any way. As a goddess I am very aware of having a message be misinterpreted. Now let me speak to your lovely daughters about what exactly it is that we are dealing with here".

Hera then turned to Diana and Donna and indicated the woman on her left. Diana could not help but be in awe of the beauty of the tall woman that stood next to the Goddess, who even when standing next to Hera, still managed to stand out. She was clearly another goddess, which confused Diana as she had met the entire Greek Pantheon personally and did not recognize the woman before here. She wore a floor-length white dress that seemed to be made out of living silk as it flowed in the breeze with an almost unnatural sway, that seemed to mimic the way her shoulder-length black hair shifted, as if she were constantly moving from side-to-side. Her dark olive skin shone in the afternoon light, emitting an intense energy that Diana could literally feel from six feet away, immediately knowing that the woman who stood before them was an extremely powerful being. She wore a set of golden earrings with strange ancient symbols on them and a necklace with a small engraving of a young man's face. Her eyes sparkled like twin aquamarine gems, which despite their beauty still seemed full of an intense sadness that nearly broke Diana's heart in seeing it. She knew that look all too well at this point in her life, it was the look of a woman who had lost her soulmate.

"Diana and Donna, Princesses of Themyscira, it is my great pleasure to introduce Isis, Egyptian mother goddess of nature" Hera said, indicating the woman who nodded and smiled at the two sisters in a way that said to them that she could be trusted.

Diana did not consider herself a trusting woman despite being a living goddess of truth as she had seen so much betrayal and evil in the world, so she was surprised how easy it was to trust this woman immediately, despite the fact that she had yet to even speak a single word since they had entered the room. However, Diana was going to trust this instinct she had until she had reason to believe otherwise and with that she bowed to the Egyptian goddess.

"We are honoured to have you in our home Isis" Diana said, noticing immediately that the woman frowned upon being greeted like this and sighed loudly.

"It is I who is honoured to be here in your beautiful Grecian homeland. Unfortunately Princess, you will most likely not feel so honoured once you hear why it is that Hera and myself are here" Isis said, looking grimly at Hera, who looked nervous all of a sudden.

Diana was shocked and exchanged a quick worried glance with her sister who looked equally surprised. _What could possibly scare the Queen of the Amazons and two immortal powerful goddesses?_

"You are wise to be concerned. Let me tell you a brief story. My husband is Osiris, God of the Underworld, similar to your Hades in that way. I have loved him from the moment I first saw him. Thousands of years ago he was tricked and brutally mutilated by his treacherous brother Set, the God of Chaos. However, as you know it is very difficult to kill a god and over the next century I and my servants were able to find all the parts of his body that Set had scattered across the world. Putting these pieces back together and with help from some of the other gods I was able to resurrect my husband and we were reunited. Despite being whole yet again, he is still technically dead, and he has been confined to his underground throne ever since then. I love my husband greatly and I know that to return him to true life would be the ultimate blessing for me" Isis could not help it as her voice broke at the end of her explanation.

Diana recognized the pain all too well, and it briefly made her thoughts drift to Kal, remembering his death at the hands of the monster Doomsday and how she had been unable to do anything. She had never cried in her life up to that point but she could not help it as the tears had flown upon learning of his death, having been brutally beaten to death. She tried to mask her remembrance of this pain but Isis caught it immediately.

"You are familiar with the death of someone you love Amazon?" Isis queried Diana gently.

"Yes. The man I love was brutally beaten by an otherworldly monster called Doomsday. He is a hero. He managed to subdue the creature moments before succumbing to the severity of his injuries. I, like you, was powerless to save him, but another otherworldly force managed to bring him back" Diana said, causing Isis' crystal tears to fall as she reached forward and drew Diana into a warm motherly embrace.

"It is for this reason that I have come to Themyscira and enlisted the aid of your mother and the Queen of the Grecian Gods. The mystical properties of this island and the assistance from some of the Grecian Pantheon have the power, when combined with my magics, to bring my husband back to true life" Isis said, drawing back from the hug and wiping away her tears.

"I notice that Isis only said _some_ of the Grecian gods are giving her assistance. Am I to assume that is why everyone is so nervous?" Donna said, causing Hippolyta, Hera, and Isis to all briefly nod at the same time.

"As you can imagine, the prospect of aiding another group of deities is not the most popular proposal amongst the Olympian court. Zeus is very worried himself that the true resurrection of Osiris will bring a challenge to his power. He is always so worried about that. He will not interfere because he knows that I am involved, but he also will not help either...he is difficult that way" Hera said, sighing at that last point regarding her husband's disagreeable nature.

"What we are afraid of is the interference of Set in the ritual. Set is the God of Chaos and Violence, a living monster of a god, and more powerful than all except Lord Ra, the Egyptian Sun-King of the Gods. Ra, like your Zeus, will not interfere because he does not consider the Grecian lands his domain, something regarding a truce he made with Zeus thousands of years ago. Set is afraid of the return of his brother, believing that it will amplify his failure that he was unable to completely destroy him, and that Osiris will seek vengeance for what was done to him" Isis said, with a look on her face that suggested to Diana that vengeance against Set was exactly what she wanted.

"If I may Princess, who is the man that you have deemed worthy of your affection? He was must be an extraordinary being indeed" Isis smiled at Diana as she turned slightly pink at the mention of him.

"His otherworldy name is Kal-El, his name given by his adoptive parents is Clark Kent, and the world knows him as Superman" Diana said, causing Hera to let out a small giggle, which caught Hippolyta off guard as she had barely seen the Queen of the Gods smile before.

The reaction that caught everyone off guard was Isis', who let out an audible gasp of shock.

"The Superman is the one you love?! This could change things greatly" Isis said, visibly shaken by the revelation of Diana's love's identity.

"What do you mean?" Diana asked, having been extremely surprised at Isis' shock and frantic nature. She was not surprised that Isis knew of Superman, the whole world knew who he was and Kal had done much work in Egypt over the years.

"The Superman is heavily favoured by Ra. He is the Egyptian God of the Sun, and as you know, Superman draws his power from the sun. Ra considers him a walking embodiment of all that is good in the world. A solar-being representation of the greatest strengths of this planet. You are probably not aware but the Kryptonian god Rao is an old friend of Ra, and prior to the destruction of Krypton, Rao asked Ra to keep an eye on the Last Son of his planet. He has watched over young Kal-El since he was born, and has a certain level of pride in his development into the Superman that he is today. I know Ra has decreed that he will not interfere, but if Superman was threatened, that could change things" Isis explained, causing Diana's eyes to widen in surprise. She had essentially just said that Ra was Kal's unofficial godfather, both literally and figuratively.

"Why did he not save Kal the last time he was in trouble? Doomsday beat the man I love to death, and he stood by and did nothing" Diana said, causing Isis to momentarily look saddened but then quickly responded.

"Ra could not interfere in that case as he has no power over beings from other worlds, like Doomsday. It is the nature of the gods, to be unable to interfere with that outside our domains. Something of a power-check to keep us from getting galactic ambitions so to speak. However, Superman draws his power from the Earth's yellow sun, which is under Ra's domain, so he is able to help him that way despite his otherworldly origins".

Diana accepted that response, briefly remembering that Kal had seemed to be able to take the punishment from Doomsday during his fight longer than he would have prior to that moment, also that up until his death there was not a cloud in sight and the sun had shone brightly in the sky. _Could Ra have been helping Kal just enough to assist him in defeating the creature?_ Diana dismissed the thought as quickly as it had appeared. Kal was alive and back now and that was all that mattered to her.

"Regardless of Ra's favour towards Superman, we cannot depend on a wild-card possibility. We need to figure out what the next steps are. We must tread carefully as we have no idea when Set will arrive or what manner of creatures he has been able to recruit to his dark ways" Hera said, causing everyone around her to nod in agreement.

"The stars will be aligned in the proper way for the ritual to resurrect my husband in three days. We need to be ready for battle before then" Isis said, her smile vanishing, replaced by a dark and ancient anger that Diana could tell was motivated by one simple motive...vengeance.

"We will discuss the next steps here. Diana, contact the Justice League. We are going to need all the help we can get. Inform J'onn that I have granted permission for the men of the League to set foot on the island to assist in the preparations. I also do not need to tell you how serious this situation is that I would grant such an invitation as I do not particularly approve of several of your male allies, especially the one you call the Flash. He tends to be a bit…brash when it comes to addressing some of the Amazon warriors he runs into" Hippolyta said, briefly frowning and forcing Diana to suppress a grim. Referring to Wally as brash when it came to Amazonian women was a polite understatement.

"I understand mother. I will call to my League colleagues immediately" Diana bowed to both her mother and the two goddesses and hurried out of the palace throne room, followed quickly by her sister.

"Wow, this is crazy Diana. Goddesses who are actually afraid, resurrecting gods, and forces of chaos marching on Themyscira. This could be really bad. Why are we helping this foreign goddess in the first place? I mean I understand she lost her husband but why should we get involved?" Donna queried. Diana knew that her sister was just wondering why several Amazons, including themselves, and their Justice League allies, could die because of this situation.

"While I do not know the whole reasoning behind why my mother and Hera agreed to help Isis, I can tell you this, both women as you know have had extreme issues when it comes to men. I do not have to remind you of Zeus' infidelities or what Heracles did to mother. We wear these bracelets to remind ourselves of what that monster did, you know that. The fact that Isis actually loves her husband dearly and he loves her back, speaks volumes to both of them. Also, from what I understand of the Egyptian pantheon, and possibly the larger reason, the return of Osiris to the earth, would bring about a balance to the scales. Ever since the death of Osiris, chaos in the form of Set has been allowed to run rampant across the globe. Donna you know that war and death run amok in this world, we see it every day in our League duties. The opportunity to balance the scales is what 'Justice' is all about. We have no choice but to help Isis try to bring her husband back. Chaos must be kept in check and violence must be quelled" Diana said, and with that her sister nodded and clasped hands with her.

"I am with you Diana, through all of this" Donna said, holding her sister's hands tightly.

"But right now I think you have more pressing concerns than preparing for a war" She said, smiling at her sister.

"What are you talking about? What could be more important than this?" Diana said, then noticed Donna was pointing gleefully at something behind her.

Diana allowed herself to turn around and a slight cry of surprise escaped her lips before she clasped her hand over her mouth.

"Kal!"

Floating in the sky before her was Kal himself, hovering just above the edge of the balcony, his red cape and dark hair billowing in the evening wind, making Diana's heart turn upside-down and begin to thump so loudly that she knew that Kal had to have heard it. The frown that appeared on his face indicated that he had heard.

"Diana, we need to talk" Clark said, his voice laced with steel resolve. Nothing was going to stop him from speaking his heart to Diana, but he noticed the nervous fluctuation in her heartbeat, it was practically pounding in his ears. _What was wrong?_

"Yes Kal, we do need to talk" Diana responded, reaching out to take Kal's hand, as he immediately grasped hers, and they both closed their eyes, briefly enjoying the warmth of the simple touch, as he floated down so he was standing directly across from her.

Donna was grinning ear-to-ear as she watched them seem to get lost in eachother's eyes, completely blind to all else around them. It was truly a sight to behold, and if Donna had had any doubts about Superman's feelings for her sister, the look in his eyes as he gazed at Diana erased them immediately.

"I'll leave you two alone then" Donna said, not allowing herself to become annoyed when they did not even acknowledge that she had spoken. She beamed as she turned and began to walk away before running right into Hippolyta, who stood there, flanked by General Philippus and no less than twenty of Themyscira's finest warriors.

"Superman, what are you doing on my island? You were not invited" Hippolyta said, surprising Diana by the anger that laced her tone, and also that she was standing there in the first place.

"Your majesty, Hippolyta, I apologize for my abrupt arrival, but I have an urgent matter that I need to discuss with Diana" Clark said, bowing before the strong and stern-faced Amazon Queen. He was slightly put-off by the harsh intrusion of Diana's mother as he could not wait another second before telling Diana how he felt about her. It was like he was racing against an unseen clock.

"Urgent matter? You've known my daughter for over a thousand years and you expect me to believe that this matter could be urgent?" Hippolyta said, placing her hands at her hips and raising her right eyebrow.

"Yes your majesty. I have been a fool to not have discussed this with your daughter sooner. That is my error and I will lift heaven and earth to make it up to her, but I must speak with her" Clark said, bowing even deeper in respect and pleading.

"Mother please! He needs to speak with me. You said we had to call out to the League. He is here now. Let me talk with him!" Diana said, surprised that she was just as frantic as Kal regarding the prospect of them talking. The situation seemed absurd. They had had thousands of conversations, why would Kal be so excited and anxious for this one? He had never behaved this way before.

"I do not care daughter. He was not invited immediately. He must return to his Justice League Watchtower and await instruction for when he is supposed to come here with everyone else. You will stay here as we need you to help us plan our battle strategy" Hippolyta said, still maintaining a cold glare towards the man with his head down before her.

Clark raised his head and Hippolyta briefly thought she saw a flash of glowing red in his pupils as he spoke in a calm tone, laced with an ice that she had never heard before.

"I must speak with Diana your majesty, and if I have to I will take her away from here. This cannot wait"

Diana was as surprised as her mother by Kal's tone. It was filled with a resolve that she had never heard before. It was the voice of someone who was not going to be argued with, and had the power to back up his words. _What could he possibly have to say to me?_

"Disobeying a direct order from the Queen of the Amazons and threatening to kidnap the Princess are extreme offenses Superman. Are you willing to risk the wrath of this entire nation just so you can speak to my daughter?" Hippolyta said, causing Clark to briefly close his eyes before opening them and locking stares with an open-mouthed Diana. The words were out of his mouth before he could even think, spoken directly and simply from the heart, and soaked in hardened determination.

"Yes I am"

"Then you have signed your own death warrant Kryptonian. My warriors are equipped with the magic weaponry necessary to deal with a being such as yourself. Are you sure it is worth risking your life to speak to her?" Hippolyta questioned, as Diana began to move forward in protest, but was surprised when Kal cut both of them off.

"Yes I am" Clark said, his voice dark and determined.

"So be it then. Amazons attack!" Hippoltya yelled, stepping back and pointing towards Clark.

"No mother, stop, don't do this!" Diana cried out, reaching for her mother's outstretched hand. She was actually going to strike her own mother, her Amazon Queen, all to protect the man that she loved. She would not be denied, not now, not ever again.

_She was an Amazon, she was meant to feel this way. _

Clark took a ready fighting stance as the group of Amazons approached. This was not going to be easy, but he would not be stopped, and he was going to risk his life to do it. He had always tried to be polite to the Amazon Queen and their people, even to the Bana woman Artemis who constantly tried to goad him into confrontation, but this time was different. Something had been awakened inside his heart, a raging inferno of emotions for the woman that was now behind a group of charging trained guards and a very angry Queen. Despite what was about to happen, that he could possibly die at the blade of Diana's people, he did not care, this was where he supposed to be. He was no longer a fool and he knew exactly what he had to do.

_I am a man in love and I have found what I have been searching for. _

**A/N: Ha! Cliffhanger! Love it! Next up it's Superman vs. The Amazons. What is Hippolyta up to now? What will happen when Diana lashes out at her mother to protect Clark? Find out next time!**


	10. Rumble in Themyscira

_So much for giving Diana's mother a good impression_.

Clark stood on the edge of the balcony as the small platoon of Amazon warriors moved towards him. He could literally feel the energy that their magic-tempered weapons were giving off and he briefly winced at the memory of the last time Diana had cut him with her sword in a particularly intense sparring session. He allowed himself a smile, remembering how she had fussed over him after she realized that she had got carried away, even threatening to cut him again if he did not stop moving so she could bind the wound. He remembered that his mother said that Hippolyta would test him to see if he was a worthy suitor for her daughter, but when he pictured tests he had not even considered that Hippolyta would order her finest Amazons to kill him, which is exactly what had just happened. He had initially thought that she had been joking, but the look on her face said otherwise, it was the look of ferocious and intense anger, the look of an angry Queen and mother.  
_  
"This isn't going to end well"_ Clark thought to himself as the closest Amazon drew within striking range. He tensed up, ready to deflect the incoming bladed-edge, just like Diana had taught him on several different occasions. He briefly wondered if Diana had been preparing him for a situation similar to this where he would have to come to blows with some of her sisters. It would certainly explain a lot. However, just before he raised his hand, they were all interrupted by a large_ 'SMACK!'_ which was immediately followed by the sound of someone hitting the ground hard.

Both Clark and the Amazon warriors turned in surprise to see Hippolya on the ground and an angry (yet very shocked) Diana standing over her, who was literally shaking with fury.

Diana could not believe that she had just struck out against her mother, but she would not have her mother or her sisters attacking Clark, not when all he had done was ask to speak to her. Hippolyta planned to kill him, and that was something she could not allow. She was not a weakling who needed someone defending her and she would not stand by quietly while Clark fought against her own family's forces. Diana was an Amazon Princess, and she would fight against any one who threatened her or those that she loved, including her own mother and Queen of her people.

"Stand fast warriors, you will not touch a hair on his head!" Diana yelled, gesturing at the Amazons who were about to attack Clark, but were now white with shock and frozen with unease.

Clark's mouth dropped open as did Donna and Phillipus', all unable to comprehend that Diana had struck not just her mother, but the Queen of the Amazons. Hippolyta shakily got to her feet, rubbing a growing red mark on her right cheek, and Clark briefly thought he saw a smile cross her face, but it quickly vanished, replaced by an even deeper anger.

"Amazon warriors, ignore my child's outburst. Deal with the Kryptonian male as I instructed. I will handle this" Hippolyta said, raising her hands above her head, causing her to be enveloped by a flash of light that temporarily blinded everyone. When the flash cleared, everyone was surprised to see Hippolyta clad in thick golden armour, brandishing the gleaming Sword of Hephaestus, and covering her left hand was a jeweled metal armour that Clark knew all to well.  
_  
'The Gauntlet of Atlas'_. Clark remembered that the gloved weapon drew its power from the planet's core and when utilized properly was a devastating tool of destruction. He was surprised two-fold, one, that Hippolyta had it her possession, and two, that she was willing to use its power against her own daughter.

Clark's first thought was immediately to go to Diana's aid, but she caught his concerned gaze with a hardened icy expression that spoke volumes to him. He understood her clearly, she didn't need him to fight her battles. She had struck out at her mother for her actions against him and she was willing to deal with those consequences.

"So Diana, you strike your own mother to defend the man?" Hippolyta said, beginning to circle her daughter, wielding the sword out front of her and flexing the gauntlet, causing it to spark with vicious red lightning.

"I do mother, you were completely out of line. Sometimes even a Queen needs to be reminded when she's gone to far" Diana said, gripping her lasso in one hand, and her own sword in in the other, mirroring her mother's circling moves.

"I will teach you a lesson daughter that you will never forget, and when I am done, your precious Superman's head will adorn my throne room as a reminder of that lesson" Hippolyta responded, causing Diana's eyes to narrow and for a moment the Amazon Queen actually felt fear at the expression on her face.

_"This is going to be interesting"_ She thought briefly before bringing her sword forward where it was immediately met by Diana's in a flash of sparks.

Clark tore his gaze away from the warring Amazon mother and daughter just in time to dodge to his left before an Amazonian spear embedded itself in the stone wall right where his head had been a moment ago. He turned his head to see General Philippus, flanked by six Amazon warriors, moving towards him.

"Your life is forfeit man. A hundred gold drachmas to the sister that removes his head!" Philippus roared before advancing on a still bewildered Clark.

Clark had a few moments to decide what to do next. Despite their speed and strength, they still seemed to be moving in slightly slow motion to him. Diana had trained him in Amazon self-defence for times when he had been weakened by green kryptonite, or had his powers stripped by the gold variety. This was not one of those times, he was full-powered, and if anything felt an increase in his powers as the sun seemed to shine brighter these past few days. Eventhough it was dark here, his inner solar batteries were fully charged. He had several non-lethal options, and he also knew how much Philippus meant to Diana, and to be fair, he also felt he owed her as Diana had pretty much taught him everything that she had taught her. In a way, Philippus had without her knowledge trained him. That was the solution! A smile spread across Clark's face.

_Fight like an Amazon. _

Clark dropped down and let his feet touch the ground. He wouldn't be flying for the rest of this encounter. He drew his arms up in a ready-stance, prepared for Philippus' advance, and briefly drew his hands up in an X-shape before bringing them down to his waist, in the Amazon-way of meeting a challenge. It worked. A look of hesitancy and surprise crossed Philippus' face, which was exactly what Clark wanted.

In the next moment, he blurred forward, causing her to stumble, and he reached forward, wrenching the other spear from her grip, before using her own momentum to catapult her over his head and into the wall behind him.

Next a red-haired Amazon tried to strike at his left side with her short sword, but was caught off-guard when Clark ducked and shunted along the ground, knocking the woman's feet out from under her, right before he let loose a blast of his freezing air, encasing her hand and the sword it was holding in ice.

_That's one down._

Next Clark was greeted by twin Amazons using a Gemini-style of fighting, their moves mirroring eachother and both of them carrying circular-bladed weapons. The swiftness and doubling of the moves meant twice as much to follow and was meant to overwhelm the opponent before falling to twin attacks. Diana had prepared Clark for this in the Watchtower training simulation by using the program to duplicate her multiple times. He knew exactly how to combat this threat. He sprung out, grabbing the one on the right by the side of her head, before quickly spinning her in rough circle, both nauseating and disorienting her. Clark stepped back, just as the off-balance one crashed into her sister, the momentum of both of them sending them crashing to the ground.  
_  
One side cannot fight without the other. Take down one, you take down both. _

Diana's words rung in Clark's ears as Philippus looked on in absolute shock,as the man seemed to blur from opponent to opponent, her eyes barely following his vicious fighting style. When Philippus had first met Superman many years ago when they had engaged in a battle against Ares and the forces of Tartarus, his fighting seemed to rely solely on his brute strength, barreling through opponents with little thought or strategy. This was a completely different man before her now. He moved with the fluidity and surgical precision of a seasoned martial artist, and at this point Philippus had picked up on more than a few Amazon techniques in his fighting style. She was hit with a realization that both upset her and gave her a certain amount of pride.

_"Diana taught him how to fight like an Amazon. She trained him to fight like us because she knew this day might come"_ Philippus thought to herself, finally allowing herself to admit that Diana must love this Superman deeply if she had entrusted him with the secrets of the Amazons' unique techniques. It was then that the Amazonian General realized something that the Queen had not. Diana had known how this encounter was going to go before it even started. She knew that Clark could win against our forces, because she trained him how to do it, but both the male and her had chosen a more diplomatic approach before coming to blows. Philippus felt a deep sense of pride in her former student, that Diana had truly learned to be both the warrior and the master strategist, but briefly cursed that pride as she was now on the receiving end of her having relayed that lesson to another.

Philippus looked up just in time to see two more Amazon warriors sail over head before landing in a heap twenty feet away. She looked up just in time to see Clark engage with the rarest of the unique Amazon styles, the Spider-technique.

Clark was slightly winded and could feel the magic of the Island weighing down on him, but he was stronger now and thanks to the years of sparring with Captain Marvel, Zatanna, and Dr. Fate, he was used to the wear and tear that magic had on him. He turned to his right and was immediately greeted by something that not even Diana could have prepared him for.

Standing before him was a tall, brown-haired, and extremely muscular Amazon dressed in a huge mechanical armoured suit. She brandished two magical tempered swords, and briefly smiled at Clark, before, to his shock, six other appendages shot out from the back of the armour. All of a sudden Clark was up against an eight-armed Amazonian war machine.

_"Spider-technique"_ Clark thought to himself. The one technique that Diana had been unable to show him, mainly because only one Amazon at a time was trained in the use of the magic God-crafted armour. All she could do was tell him that it existed and the technique had not been used in many years, as it was what the Amazons called _'A Weapon of Last Resort'._

"I guess this is it" Clark thought, realizing that with their General down, the Amazons were resorting to their greatest weapon, as Hippolyta was using the gauntlet against her own daughter.

"Let's see you handle this one man!" Philippus shouted, knowing very well that not even Diana knew how to defend against the Spider-technique. A true teacher left some things to surprise, in order to teach one final lesson,_ to always expect the unexpected.  
_  
Clark braced himself, ready for the final onslaught from this screeching mechanized creature in front of him. He blurred forward to meet the attack as eight different blades came at him from several different angles. __

Diana briefly glanced over her shoulder at the sound of the mechanical wheezing of the Amazonian spider-armour. She could not believe that her mother would have allowed Philippus to send out the warrior who was trained how to use that. It was guarded for only the most dire of emergencies. Hell, they hadn't even brought it out the last time Ares attacked the Island from Tartarus. She didn't have much time to dwell on this though as her mother used the opportunity to shift forward and catch Diana in the side of her head with the gauntlet, brutally smashing Diana through the adjacent wall before landing in the forested area behind the palace.

"Okay, now that hurt" Diana said to herself, bringing herself shakily to her feet. She was surprised to see the Queen come streaking through the hole in the wall before landing in the forest next to her.

"Sandals of Hermes. A gift from the messenger god. Can't have you being the only one who can fly Diana, that wouldn't be fair" Hippolyta said, gesturing to the small wings that protruded from the heels of the sandals on her feet.

"Fair? This coming from the mother who just cold-clocked her daughter in the side of the head?" Diana clipped in response, bringing her sword down in a wide arc, scratching the shoulder of Hippolyta's armour.

"It was not my fault that you let yourself become distracted. If that's what you mean by being 'cold-clocked'?" Hippolyta responded, before parying Diana's blow and attempting to strike her in the chest with the gauntlet.

"You're using the Spider-armour against Kal! That is madness! You didn't even use it against Ares!" Diana yelled, grabbing the gauntlet in her hands, dropping her sword, surprising the Amazon Queen, just in time for her to tear it off her mother's arm before back-handing her across the face with the loose weapon.

Hippolyta fell to one knee before standing back up and trying to take the gauntlet back from Diana, but watched as her daughter tossed the glove in a wide arc over the far palace wall.

"It's going, going, gone! Sorry mother, just another phrase I picked up from Man's world. Baseball. Slow game, but can be exciting under the right circumstances" Diana said, as Hippolyta stared at her daughter in disbelief.

"I'm using the Spider-armour against him because he's a bigger threat than Ares ever was" Hippolyta taunted, before realizing that maybe she shouldn't have resorted to that, because she watched as Diana's blue eyes darken at that comparison. Before she knew it, her daughter had blurred forward, knocking her off her feet, before systematically beginning to tear every piece of her armour off with her bare hands.

"Don't. You. Dare. Compare. Kal. To. That. Monster. Ever. Again". With each word Diana ripped another piece of the Queen's armour off, before leaving her in the dust wearing only her original royal tunic that she had had on prior to willing the armour to her.

"So you defend this man, even against your own family? You're willing to defy everything you were raised against and to engage with your Queen and Mother just to protect someone that you love?" Hippolyta said, spitting blood on the ground, before shakily regaining her footing and leaning against a nearby tree.

A small tear escaped Diana's eye as she realized what she had done to her mother, but her Amazonian resolve still remained strong as she responded.

"To my last breath".

Diana was shocked as a broad smile crossed her mother's battle-worn face before she reached forward and embraced her daughter warmly.

"Then I have raised my daughter right" Hippolyta said, before stepping back, and to Diana's surprise, there were tears in her mother's eyes.

"What are you talking about?!" Diana demanded, unable to comprehend what her mother's angle was here.

_Meanwhile_...

For the first time in a long time, Clark was caught off-balance by the relentless attack of the mechanical monster that continued its eight-point attack against him. He could defend himself against eight different attackers, Hell, he could defend himself against eighty different attackers, but eight attacks coming from one was a different story.

_"God, even Starro only attacked from five different points, and I had the help of the entire Justice League when that happened" _Clark thought to himself, briefly recalling one of his earliest battles where Diana had fought by his side. He was brought rushing back to reality when one of the blades on his right cut into the flesh of his shoulder, sending a burning pain up his side and briefly blinding his vision with a flash of red.

Clark was quickly coming to the realization that he couldn't outmaneuver the swiftness of the strikes, the armour's speed being enhanced by God-made engines, deliberately designed to combat someone as quick as Hermes or the Flash. If only he could get inside the swinging blades he'd have free reign to take it down.

_"Get inside..." _Clark thought to himself. He had an option, but he really didn't like the idea, but he was quickly running out of time. Clark gritted his teeth and deliberately moved into the path of one of the swinging blades, catching a vicious blow to his side, and beginning to cut into his abdomen, spilling blood onto the white Grecian stone around them. Clark saw the look of defiance on the Amazon's face that dwelled inside the armour, and the perverse smile that crossed her face.

"Got you man. You are defeated. Yield"

To her surprise, Clark raised his head to meet the Amazon's gaze and in a flash his painful grimace turned to a crooked smile.

"No. You are defeated. You just don't know it yet" Clark responded, and before the Amazon could even react, he reached up and tore the arms off the left-side of the armour with a brutal torque and a flash of sparks.

She reeled in shock and tried to strike at him from the right side, but Clark had moved in to close to her. He had allowed her to strike him so he could get inside her defence. She couldn't even hit him from where he was, he was too close...but he could get to her. Clark reached up and tore the arms off from the right as well, before using his heat-vision to bisect the armour up the middle. He stepped back and watched as the armour fell off the Amazon warrior in a smoking heap, leaving her standing there unarmed and vulnerable.

Clark reached down and picked up the now defenceless Amazon and dropped her against the nearby wall.

"Yield. All of you. It's over Philippus" Clark said, before letting her go, and walking back over to the edge of the balcony.

Philippus was about to respond, having been left speechless by the way Clark had managed to destroy the Spider-armour, which now was nothing but a hunk of smoking and twisted metal, but she was cut off by the approaching Amazon Queen and her daughter.

"Yes it is over. Well done Superman" Hippolyta said, as Diana landed and immediately ran over to Clark, holding him tightly in a warm embrace. For a moment Clark forgot the searing pain in his side and just held her against him.

"Mother, I think you owe Clark and myself an explanation" Diana said, reluctantly pulling herself away from Clark, but still remaining next to his side, with her hand still pressed over his on top of the wound to his side.

"As Clark will probably tell you my daughter, he briefly spoke to his mother before coming here regarding you and his feelings. While I am not exactly sure of what his intentions are towards you at this point, or for that matter sure what you two plan to speak about once you get the opportunity, I do know one thing for sure, and that's that both of you have been dragging your feet for a long time" Hippolyta said, narrowing her eyes at both of them, causing both of their mouths to open in shock.

"So I organized a test of sorts to see if your resolve was indeed there Superman, and if you were truly worthy of my daughter's time and energy. I do not as you have learned, take this situation lightly. My friendship with your mother does not gain you any special treatment. You had to prove your worthiness on your own to me. You have been, how do they say in Man's world? 'Tiptoeing around?' I had to make you pay for that. What I was not counting on and what I am particularly proud of, is the intervention of my daughter" The Queen turned to to Diana with a stern expression, who blushed as she watched her mother rub her injured reddened jaw.

"This test was meant to be for Kal-El, but your outburst offered me an opportunity to see how committed you were to this as well. I do not believe it fair to Superman that he risk his life for you if you were unwilling to do the same. Plus, if you are going to be Queen some day, then you are going to have to know when it is time to follow your own heart and pick your own battles, despite the risk involved".

Both Diana and Clark were floored by the reaction of the Amazon Queen, with both of them left temporarily speechless. This had all been a set-up by Hippolyta to test Clark's commitment and loyalty to Diana.

"Was it really necessary to use potentially lethal force against me?" Clark said, as both he and Diana still held on to his side, which had begun to heal and close on its own accord.

"Let me put it this in very simple terms Kryptonian. I cannot have my daughter courted by a weakling who is unwilling to stand for what he believes in or to fight for those he loves. Also, you both took a damn long time getting to this point, the least I could do is swing a sword at your thick head!" Hippolyta responded, crossing her arms against her chest.

"You and my mother really do think alike" Clark said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Meanwhile Diana was surprised to see that her mother had gone through so much effort just to have Clark prove himself to her. She was also as surprised as Clark had initially been when she found out that Martha and Hippolyta had become close friends. At that moment however Diana had one thing on her mind, she was annoyed and wanted to get it off her chest.

"Well mother if you're finished testing Kal, I think you owe us time to talk" Diana said, raising her left eyebrow crossly at the Queen, who laughed heartily.

"Of course daughter, you have the Queen's permission to speak" Hippolyta responded, and watched as her daughter grabbed Clark by his hand roughly and took off into the sky, dragging the still bewildered Kryptonian after her.

Despite his shock and the rapidly closing wound in his side, Clark decided some payback was necessary for the Amazon Queen. He was after all a Kansas farmboy at heart, and had enjoyed watching the mischievous way his father had teased his mother, making her blush at inappropriate times. He smiled as Diana pulled him into the dark night air, but not before turning back to the Queen.

"Thanks for the workout. We will see you soon _Polly_" Clark said, causing Diana to nearly let go of his hand in shock, and causing the Queen to turn a furious shade of red.

"That will always be Hippolyta to you Clark Kent. Your mother raised you better than that!"

Diana watched this exchange with surprise and amazement, as she traveled off with Kal.

_Despite time and cultural differences, mothers are always the same at their heart. They all want what is best for their children. _

**A/N: And to the victors go the spoils...or should I say conversations. Next up, it's time for a serious heart-to-heart between the two of them!**


	11. Actions Speak Louder

_How could I have let this go on like this for so long?_

As they flew side-by-side and hand-in-hand, the shores of Themyscira fading into the night, Clark could not help but be both looking forward to and dreading the conversation that he and Diana were about to have. They had waited so long for this moment, tip-toed around the issues for so long, and finally here it was. He glanced over at her, noticing that she just kept looking straight ahead, not looking over at him, a look of determination on her face that Clark had never seen, not even in their greatest battles. Without a word Clark understood what Diana was trying to get across eventhough she was not looking at or speaking to him at that moment. She wanted to make sure that they had their moment together, and he was all too content to silently fly next to her, his hand gripped in the warm vice of hers.

After twenty minutes of silent gliding through the air, Diana suddenly stopped in the air and let go of Clark's hand. He looked confused for a moment as to why they were stopping there but she knew exactly why she had chosen this place. They were high in the stratosphere, the world stretching out for miles in every direction below them. Diana had never felt this nervous in her entire life, and she could feel herself shaking. She knew he probably heard her nervous heartbeat fluttering in her chest but at that point she didn't care. It was time to put all cards on the table, and it was time to finally tell him what she had been holding back for so many years. She was an Amazon and she would not be denied what her heart so strongly desired.

"Why did you choose this place Diana?" Clark said, finally letting curiosity get the better of him as he did not see any discernible landmarks either below him or around them.

"Because Kal, at this point in the sky, high above the earth here, we are at the exact point that puts us the farthest away from Themyscira, Smallville, Gotham, Metropolis, and the Watchtower that we can be all at the same time" Diana responded, causing Clark's eyes to widen in surprise.

"How do you know that Diana?" Clark inquired, wondering how Diana could have found a spot that put as much distance as possible from so many different locations at the same time.

"I come here when I need to think about you. I came here after you died and I came here after we got back from Asgard" Diana said, closing her eyes and Clark noticed as a small tear escaped her right eye, where he quickly reached up and brushed it away.

"An Amazon is not supposed to feel fear. She is supposed to just harden herself for the next battle. I cannot pretend that I am made of stone anymore, that I am just a non-feeling creature made from clay" Diana's tears were flowing now, as she wrapped her arms around herself, briefly unable to keep speaking. She could not believe how difficult this was, to convey what she had been bottling up for so damn long.

Clark reached forward and placed his arms around her, pulling her in close to his chest. For a moment in the sky it was just the two of them holding eachother as Diana strengthened her resolve to continue.

"Diana, do not for one moment think that you are alone in this. I am right here with you, I always have been, and I always will be" Clark said, trying to reassure her, but was surprised when she reacted violently, her tears briefly stopping as she struck out at him, knocking him hard across the chest away from her.

"You weren't there Kal! You cannot claim that you were always there! You died fighting that god-damn monster! You left me when I needed you most! How could you do that to me?" Diana yelled, unable to hold back the pain that she had been hiding inside for so long.

She expected him to show sorrow or surprise, to maybe even blush or scratch the back of his neck in classic Superman-form, but what she didn't expect was the hardened expression that appeared on his face.

"My death. Yes Diana, I died fighting Doomsday on that fateful day where that creature made me draw what I thought was my last breath. I had thought that I wouldn't ever kill, no matter what, but that day we killed eachother with that last punch. I will never forget that moment, not because it was my death, but because of the last thing that flashed across my mind prior to that instant" Clark said, closing his eyes, finally ready to admit to Diana the truth that he had been holding back for too long.

"What was it Kal?" Diana was caught off-guard by this comment as Clark had never before spoken about those last moments, or even about his fight with the creature before that. She waited patiently for him to explain himself.

"You Diana. In that instant I thought of you, of all the unresolved moments left to speak of, of all the times I would never see you smile again, or to watch you laugh over me after you dump me unceremoniously on my ass after an intense sparring session. I thought about how my death was going to affect you, and that in that last moment I realized that I was going to make an Amazon cry...that your last image of me would be that of a bloody, beaten, and broken shell of a man. People have asked me why I was able to summon the resolve to kill the creature on that day, well, the truth is I struck that last blow against him because of you. I knew you and the others were on your way to help, and I couldn't die knowing that you could get hurt or worse after I fell. I died to save you".

Diana could barely register Kal's admission, as her heart was beating so fast it seemed ready to explode. He had just admitted that he had let himself be killed just so he could protect her from the monster, and that his last thoughts were of her. It was so overwhelming for her that she couldn't even bring voice to her defiance that Kal had again been trying to protect her.

As if reading her mind, Clark held his hand up, closed his eyes, and continued speaking.

"I know what you're thinking Diana, we've been having this banter for years. I know you think you don't need saving, that you can handle everything by yourself. Well the truth is that you can't, none of us ever can handle everything by ourselves. That's why we have a League...but more importantly that's why you have me and I have you".

Diana finally found her voice and immediately reacted in Amazon warrior-like defiance.

"How did you think I would be able to live with myself knowing that you had died, especially now that I know that your misguided nobleness had you sacrifice your life to protect me?! You sacrificed yourself to protect me from possibly dying as well! What gave you the right to do that?! Did you not think I couldn't handle it on my own?"

Diana was cut off before she could say anything else as Clark raised his voice, something he rarely ever did, interrupting her with the cold, hard truth.

"If it had been you up against him and you knew that I was coming, would you have given your life to protect me?!"

Clark watched as Diana's voice caught in her throat, and he knew that he'd caught her. This was never about either of them thinking the other was not strong enough or that they needed saving, but the inescapable truth that if either of them could help it, they would give their life to protect the other, and they would do it in a heartbeat.

"God damn you Kal, you know I would have" Diana responded, unable to argue with the Kryptonian's logic. She knew that he saw her as his equal, and had laid his life down to protect her that day, not because she was incapable, but because it couldn't be any other way. He was Superman, he had to save her, just like she was Wonder Woman, and would have saved him. She knew that a day may come where she might have to give her life to protect him, and if that moment came, she would not hesitate for a moment.

"Just seeing your reaction is still so strong today after I died fighting Doomsday, I'm glad I never told you how much I cared when we were in Asgard" Clark sighed, although the fire that re-ignited in Diana's eyes suggested that now was the wrong time to bring that up, but it was already too late. He barely had a chance to get his hands up before Diana struck out at him again, but this time he managed to deflect her glancing blow.

"Asgard?! It was a thousand years Kal and you never once made me believe I was more than just your friend! Every day we could have died and you never once took the opportunity to tell me that you gave a damn!"

Clark's heart nearly broke as the tears of anger and heartbreak once again began to flow from Diana's eyes. He couldn't believe how much emotional turmoil he had caused for the both of them in just a few short minutes, but it was time for everything to come out, no matter how painful a process this was turning out to be. They were through pretending.

"You think I didn't want to Diana? You're wrong. Every moment of every day, even in the midst of battle, I wanted to take you in my arms and tell you how much I cared, but it was too risky. I couldn't spend a moment of wonderful with you just to lose you the next day. It was a war, and I couldn't bear that those feelings would expose themselves, only for one of us to lose the other the next day. It would have been too much to bear for either of us" Clark responded, watching Diana's eyes widen, as he finally told her why he had never made any move towards her during that bloody time.

"I would rather have a moment of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special Kal" Diana said, causing Clark to raise his head, and look deep into her eyes.

"As much as we just want to be Diana Prince and Clark Kent, the fact is that we are superheroes. We are Wonder Woman and Superman, and we always will be Kal. We are going to continue to risk our lives every day. I don't want to spend another moment wondering if I am going to lose you and not tell you how I feel. If I lose you or if you lose me, I want you to know what is in my heart, I want us to have eachother, even if it is just for a short time. I want you for as long as we can have eachother, whether for a moment, or all eternity" Diana said, as the floodgates were now open and she had begun to pour her heart out to the man infront of her.

"I don't want to wait any longer either Diana. We have danced around this issue for too long, pretending that we are just friends, and all we seem to do is just hurt eachother more. I cannot allow this to go on any longer. You are my best friend, my equal in every way, a woman with so much kindness and strength in her heart. You are my living goddess come to me, but you are also the woman, you are Diana. You love this world despite all its flaws and it hurts you to see others hurting all over it, and yet you still maintain such a positive outlook on life when so many forces have given you infinite reason to just give up. You never do. You are the warrior, you are the diplomat, and you are the woman, and my heart has always been yours, from the first time I ever saw you" Clark said, as Diana noticed that his perfect blue eyes had begun to mist over as well. His skin may be made of steel, but his heart was vulnerable, and it had always belonged to her.

Diana's heart was caught in her throat and she was visibly trembling as she took his face in both her hands.

"What are you saying Kal?"

Clark's gaze locked with Diana and she watched as the tears began to fall on his face, and his lip curled up into his trademark sideways smile.

"I love you Diana"

For Diana, time seemed to freeze at that moment, at hearing Kal finally speak those words aloud to her, bringing voice to all the pent-up mental and physical stress that had been building for so long, and how with just three words, all of it had went away. She felt like her heart had stopped and she was transcending above. It was an unbelievable lightness, which considering they were floating in the upper atmosphere, was not surprising in the least. She finally found her voice and gave words to the feelings that she had been holding back for so long.

"Kal, Amazons are not supposed to feel this way, to be stripped of all our armour and left completely vulnerable before anyone, let alone a man. It is why I have had so much trouble for so long as well. For a long time I believed that I had angered Aphrodite for filling me which such inner pain, but now I know that what we have and what I feel for you is a wonderful gift. Despite all your gifts, you are the most gentle person I have ever met, and you always put others before yourself. You have always been completely selfless and noble, always concerned for about others. It is not your powers that make you Super, it is the man that you are, the man that I have loved from the moment I saw you. You are Clark Kent and you are Kal-El, and I love you"

Diana waited for him to respond to her admission, but Clark did not have any words left. They were not needed anymore. He reached forward and took her into his arms, wrapping them around her back as she clasped her fingers behind his neck, each bringing the other closer. They could literally feel the intense energy in the air as their faces neared eachother, before their lips finally came together in a fiery passion that had been building for so long.

_When their lips met, fireworks did not explode, the Gods did not trumpet their approval, and there was not a slow building clap in the background. In that instant, all that existed was the two of them. This was their moment, and theirs alone, to have for the rest of their lives. There, together above the Earth, touching the edge of Heaven itself, they wrapped their arms around eachother, getting lost in the warm glow of the other. They existed as they always had...for eachother, and they were ready to face tomorrow...together at last. _

**A/N: Apologies for the delay in this latest chapter but I wanted to make sure that I could convey their emotions as well as I could, and also offer some explanations as to why it took so long for them to get to this point. Next up the new couple spends some quality time together, unaware that Set and Ares are plotting! Thank you for the reviews so far everyone!**


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